Rational Developer for System z

Importing an outbound Web service definition

The Import Web Services Definition wizard reads an outbound Web service definition from an existing WSDL file and generates from that definition the service flow project artifacts that define an invoke interface for an outbound Web service.

In general, whenever there is an outbound Web service that is available for use, the owner of that Web service has published a WSDL file describing the Web service and its invoke interface. This is the WSDL file that you want to import into the Enterprise Service Tools using the Import Web Services Definition wizard, as described in this topic. For a sample of such a file, see Sample Web service definition file.

Recall that an outbound Web service is any Web service that you invoke from within a flow belonging to a service flow project. The modifier outbound refers to the fact that the invoked Web service is external to the flow (see Outbound Web services subproject).

For more information about the artifacts generated by this wizard, see the subsection Files created when an outbound Web service definition is imported further on in this topic.

Importing an outbound Web service definition saves you the work of manually creating an operations file and a message file to define the invoke interface for an outbound Web service (see Basic information about operations for general information about operations).

After you generate an invoke interface for an outbound Web service, you must use the operations file that you generated to create an Invoke outbound Web services node within one of your flows (see Working with Invoke outbound Web service nodes).

Using the Import Web Services Definition wizard

Note: This same wizard is used in a different context to import a regular (that is, not outbound) Web service definition into the interface definition subproject of your service flow project (see Importing a Web service definition).
To import an outbound Web service definition:
  1. In the EST Project Explorer, right-click anywhere within an outbound web services subproject.
  2. Select Import CICS Web Service. The Import Web Service Definition wizard opens.
  3. On the first page of the wizard, titled Import Web Service Definitions:
    1. In the WSDL files to import list box, list the WSDL files that contain the Web service definition or definitions that you want to import:
      1. Click FileSystem to select a file from the workstation's file system.
      2. Click Workspace to select a file from the current workspace that you are using in the workbench.
      3. Click Remote to select a file on the remote system.
      4. Click Remove to remove a file from the list.
    2. In the Project Name list box, select the outbound Web services subproject in which you want the new operation file, message file, WSBind file, and WSDL file for each imported outbound Web service to be stored.
      Note: The only types of subprojects listed in the Project Name list box are existing outbound Web services subprojects.
    3. Select the list box Overwrite existing resources without warning if you want the wizard to overwrite existing files having the same names without prompting you.
    4. Click Next to go to the next page of the wizard or Finish to close the wizard:
      • Click Next and go to the next page if you want to select which outbound Web service definitions are to be imported.
      • Click Finish if you want the wizard to import all the Web service definitions in all the WSDL files listed in the WSDL files to import list box.
  4. On the second page of the wizard, titled Select operations:
    1. Select the check box beside each outbound Web service definition that you want to import.
      Note: By default, all the check boxes are selected.
    2. Click Finish.

When you click Finish, the wizard creates, in the outbound Web service subproject that you selected on the first page of the wizard, a set of files for each outbound Web service definition that you selected on the second page of the wizard (or for all the outbound Web service definitions in all the WSDL files listed on the first page of the wizard, if you clicked Finish on the first page).

For a description of each type of file, see the next section of this topic.

Files created when an outbound Web service definition is imported

The types of files created for each imported outbound Web service definition are listed in Table 1:
Table 1. Types of files created when an outbound Web service definition is imported
Folder in the outbound Web service subproject: Type of file created in the folder: Example of type of file created:
Operations folder An operations file containing an operation that defines an invoke interface for an outbound Web service definition AddressBookW2JB.wsdl
Message folder A message file containing the messages referenced by the operation. AddressBookW2JBMessages.wsdl
Services folder
  • A WSBind file
  • A WSDL file
  • AddressBookW2JB.wsbind
  • AddressBookW2JB.wsdl
Table 2 describes each type of file:
Table 2. Descriptions of the types of files created
File: Description:
Operations file The operations file contains only one operation. This operation contains the interface information needed to invoke the outbound Web service, including a port type, a program name, and references to an input message, an output message, and optionally one fault message.
Note: These operations files have the same format as the operations files used in the Operations folder of a nonterminal applications subproject, and similar content (see Working with operations and Operations editor).
Note: Unlike operations for invoking other entities (such as an operation for invoking a flow or an operation for invoking a nonterminal application), an operation for invoking an outbound Web service supports a maximum of only one fault message, which by default is the WS_SOAPFAULT_AREA fault message (see The fault message for an Invoke outbound Web service node).
Messages file The messages file contains definitions of the input message, the output message, and the fault messages (if any) referenced by the operation in the operations file.
Note: These message files have the same format as the message files used in the Messages folder of a nonterminal applications subproject, and similar content (see Working with messages and Flow message editor).
WSBind file The WSBind file is used by CICS® at run time to convert data back and forth between the WSDL format used to communicate with a Web service and the binary data structures used by the runtime COBOL module of your program that invokes the outbound Web service.
Note: You may be required to deploy this WSBind file to the host to which you are deploying your runtime code (and on which you plan to run your runtime code):
  • If the outbound Web service is already registered on the host to which you are deploying your runtime code, then this BIND file should already exist on that host.
  • If the WSBind file does not already exist on the host to which you are deploying your runtime code, then:
WSDL file The WSDL file is optional but can be used by CICS at run time for logging and debugging purposes. (This WSDL file is identical to the original WSDL file that you imported -- that is, the WSDL file that you specified on the first page of the Import Web Service Definitions wizard.)
Note: For logging and debugging purposes, you may want to deploy this WSDL file to the host to which you are deploying your runtime code (and on which you plan to run your runtime code):
  • If the outbound Web service is already registered on the host to which your are deploying your runtime code, then this WSDL file should already exist on that host.
  • If the WSDL file does not already exist on the host to which you are deploying your runtime code, then:


Feedback