<oXygen/> XML Editor User Guide |
Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information.
<oXygen/> offers the following facilities for WSDL support :
The WSDL files contain information about the published services, like the name, the message types and the bindings. The editor is offering a way to edit the WSDL files that is similar to editing XML, the tag-insight being driven by a mix of the WSDL and SOAP Schema.
To create a WSDL file, use the File/New and then choose WSDL file.
To open a WSDL file use File/Open or if the file is included in the current project right-click on it and select Open with/WSDL SOAP Analyser.
While editing the Web-Services descriptors you can check their conformance to the WSDL and SOAP schema. You do not need to specify the schema location for the WSDL standard namespaces. In the following example you can see how the errors are reported.
After defining the descriptor you can check it to see if the defined messages are accepted by the Web Services server. <oXygen/> is providing two ways of testing, one for the currently edited WSDL file and other for the remote WSDL files that are published on a web server.
In case of a remote file you must use the menu option "WSDL SOAP Analyser". In case of the edited document, you can start the analyser from the first button of the tool bar.
The analyser fields are:
The List of Services. The list of services defined by the WSDL file.
The List of Ports. The ports for the selected service.
The List of Operations. The list of available operations for the selected service.
The Action URL. This is not editable and it shows the script that serves the operation.
The SOAP Action. This is not editable and identifies the action performed by the script.
The Request Editor. It allows you to compose the web service request. When an action is selected, <oXygen/> tries to generate as much content as possible for the call skeleton. Usually you just have to change few values in order for the request to be valid. The content completion is available for this editor and is driven by the schema that defines the type of the current message.
The Attachments List. You can define a list of file's URLs to be attached to the request.
The Response Area. It presents the message received from the server in response to the Web Service request. It may show also error messages.
The Errors List. There may be situations in which the WSDL file is respecting the WSDL XML Schema, but it fails to be valid for example in the case of a message that is defined by means of an element that is not found in the types section of the WSDL. In such a case, the errors will be listed here. This list is presented only when there are errors.
The Send Button. Executes the request. A status dialog is shown when <oXygen/> is connecting to the server.
The testing of a WSDL file is straight-forward, you just have to click on the WSDL analysis button, then select the service, the port and the operation. The editor will generate the skeleton for the request. You can edit the request, eventually attach files to it and send it to the server. Watch the server response in the response area.
Once defined a request derived from a Web Service descriptor you can save it and reuse it later. In this way you will save the time in configuring the URLs and parameters.
You can open the result of a Web Service call in an editing view. In this way you can save it or process it further.