Accessing a Web service using the SOAP/AM Client requires four implementation steps.

•Creating and editing the Client Definition File

•Configuring the Client Process

•Creating the IPM definitions

•Calling a Web service method

These steps are summarized below.

Creating and Editing the Client Definition File

The Client Definition File (CDF) contains all of the information needed by the SOAPAMCP process to map a request IPM to a Web service request and map the Web service response back to an reply IPM. The WSDL2CDF utility creates a Client Definition File (CDF) by reading the Web Service Description Language (WSDL) file that describes the target Web service and augmenting it with mapping information. Refer to Creating and Editing the Client Definition File for more information.

Configuring the Client Process

The SOAPAMCP process may be run as a standalone process or configured as a Pathway server. You specify the name of the Client Definition File (CDF) that contains the description of the Web service and its methods. You run a separate instance of the SOAPAMCP process (or configure separate server classes) for each CDF. The process loads the CDF file and uses the information contained in it to map request IPMs to SOAP requests and responses back to reply IPMs. Refer to Configuring the Client Process for more information.

Generating the IPM Definitions

Your NonStop application makes a Web service method call by sending a predefined IPM request to the SOAPAMCP process and waiting for the response. The format of the request and response IPMs must correspond exactly to the definitions in your CDF. You may use the CDF2DDL utility to generate a DDL representation of the IPMs. Then, you can use the NonStop DDL Compiler to generate C, COBOL, or other language-specific IPM definitions which can be compiled into your application. You may also use the CDF2C utility to generate C language IPM definitions directly, without using DDL. Refer to Generating the IPM Definitions for more information.

Calling a Web Service Method

Your application calls a Web service method by sending a request IPM to the SOAPAMCP process. Each IPM request contains a message code that indicates which Web service method should be invoked. The remainder of the IPM consists of fields that correspond to the parameters of the selected Web service method.

Once the SOAPAMCP process invokes the Web service method it returns the response in an IPM. This response IPM also contains a standard response code. If the response code indicates success, the remainder of the IPM consists of fields that correspond to the output parameters of the Web service method. If the response code indicates an error then the IPM is a standard SOAPAMCP error reply structure. Refer to Calling a Web Service Method for more information.