So we managed to solve this by the help of a collegue here.
This is our working code:
public String Etl() throws ETSdkException, RemoteException {
ETClient client = new ETClient("fuelsdk.properties");
String response = client.getSoapConnection().getEndpoint();
//get soap stub
Soap soapClient=client.getSoapConnection().getSoap();
//Creating a request for AutomationInstance Object
RetrieveRequest retrieveRequest = new RetrieveRequest();
retrieveRequest.setObjectType("Automation"); //set which object we want here
//Create properties
List<String> props = new ArrayList<>();
//{"Name", "StartTime", "CompletedTime", "Status"};
props.add("Name");
//props.add("StartTime");
//props.add("CompletedTime");
props.add("Status");
retrieveRequest.getProperties().addAll(props);
//filter
SimpleFilterPart filter1 = new SimpleFilterPart();
filter1.setProperty("CustomerKey");
filter1.setSimpleOperator(SimpleOperators.EQUALS);
filter1.getValue().add("SEC_ETL_IMPORT");
retrieveRequest.setFilter(filter1);
RetrieveRequestMsg retrieveRequestMsgCont = new RetrieveRequestMsg();
retrieveRequestMsgCont.setRetrieveRequest(retrieveRequest) ;
RetrieveResponseMsg retrieveResponseMsgCont = soapClient.retrieve(retrieveRequestMsgCont);
System.out.println("[overall status message] "
+ retrieveResponseMsgCont.getOverallStatus());
List<APIObject> apiObjectArray = retrieveResponseMsgCont.getResults();
return apiObjectArray.toString();
}
The only issue we're having now is converting the APIObject to the object of Automation in internal classes.