Configuring Web Services General
What is a Web Service?
A Web Service is a method of communication between two applications or electronic devices over web. You can either use pre-defined web services that come along with the SummitAI application or build Custom Services based on your organization's requirement.
Web Services are of two types:
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Representational State Transfer (REST)
SOAP defines a standard communication protocol (set of rules) specification for XML-based message exchange. SOAP uses different transport protocols, such as HTTP and SMTP.
The standard protocol HTTP makes it easier for SOAP model to tunnel across firewalls and proxies without any modifications to the SOAP protocol. SOAP can sometimes be slower than middleware technologies like CORBA or ICE due to its verbose XML format.
REST describes a set of architectural principles by which data can be transmitted over a standardized interface (such as HTTP). REST does not contain an additional messaging layer and focuses on design rules for creating stateless services. A client can access the resource using the unique URL and a representation of the resource is returned. With each new resource representation, the client is said to transfer state.
While accessing RESTful resources with HTTP protocol, the URL of the resource serves as the resource identifier and GET, PUT, DELETE, POST and HEAD are the standard HTTP operations to be performed on that resource.
Provide the Service URL to create a Web Service.
Figure: Edit Service URL
Service URL example: http://<webserviceurl>/REST/Summit_RESTWCF.svc
Replace <webserviceurl> with base URL.
To Preview a Web Service:
Select Admin > Basic > Infrastructure > Web Services.
Select a URL from the drop-down list.
Select a service from the Custom Services list.
Fill in all the mandatory fields and then click SUBMIT. The Output Data is displayed.
Figure: Web Services Preview page
Field Description
The following table describes the fields on the WEB SERVICES EXPLORER page:
Fields | Description |
|---|---|
Custom Services/Predefined Services | Displays the list of services available. Select a service from the list to extract data from the application through the Web services. Type in the name of the services to search from the list. Click Filters icon to filter the services according to modules.
|
View Custom Services | Click View Custom Services (highlighted in red color in the above image) to display the list of Custom Services created by the users. |
View Predefined Services | Click View Predefined Services (highlighted in green color in the above image) to display list of services already defined in the SUMMIT application. |
Refresh | Click to Refresh the list. |
URL | Select Input URL format from the drop-down list, either JSON Object or JSON String or XML.
Service URL example: http://<webserviceurl>/REST/Summit_RESTWCF.svc Replace <webserviceurl> with base URL. |
Mandatory Fields | Displays Mandatory Fields for the selected service. |
Input Data | Displays Input parameter for the selected URL Type. |
Output Data | Displays Output for the selected URL Type. |
Search Bar | You can search for the web services, based on their properties. For example, if you specify table in the search bar, all the existing tables will be displayed. |
To Create New Custom Services:
Click CREATE NEW. The WEB SERVICE DESIGNER page is displayed.
Figure: Web Service Designer pageType in the Web Service Name and specify the number of records to be displayed.
Click icon to view, hide or customize the web service properties.
Figure: Web Service PropertiesField Description
The following table describes the fields on the PAGE PROPERTIES section:
Select check box to select DATA SOURCE from the list. You can scroll down to see all the available Data Sources or type in the Data Source name in the search box to search a particular Data Source.
Click GENERATE SQL to Generate SQL Query.
Click PREVIEW to view the Output of the ongoing Web Service.
Click SAVE. The Web Service is added to the WEB SERVICE PREVIEW list.