SuiteTalk (Web Services) Platform Guide - NetSuite

Chapter 9TypesThis section describes the following:• Built-in Types: primitive or derived datatypes defined in the XML Schemaspecification• Complex Types: NetSuite derived datatypes• Custom Field Types: datatypes used for custom fields• Search Types: datatypes used for search records• Platform Enumerations: datatypes used to populate system defined listsA WSDL document in Web services uses the XML Schema to define the structure, semanticsand constraints of the messages sent between the sender and recipient. The XML Schema is aW3C standard.There is a strong analogy between object-oriented programming and XML Schema. A typedefined in XML Schema can be used to represent an instance of that type in an XMLdocument. Therefore, the body of a SOAP message consists of a combination of such instancesof an XML Schema type.Built-in TypesBuilt-in (or primitive) types are those that are not defined in terms of other datatypes. They areused as a standardized way to define, send, receive and interpret basic data types in SOAPmessages. Primitive data types used in the SuiteTalk can be modified for display purposes. Forexample, although a price field may be passed in the SOAP messages using an integer primitivedata type, the NetSuite UI may format the value with a currency symbol for display purposes.Of the extensive set of built-in (or primitive) types provided by the XML Schema languagespecification, the SuiteTalk implementation uses the following built-in types. For detailedinformation on XML Schema built-in types, refer to http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/.• string: represents character strings in XML• int: derived from the decimal type and represents the standard concept of the integernumbers• double: is patterned after the IEEE double-precision 64-bit floating point type• boolean: represents the concept of binary-valued logic: {true, false}. In NetSuite, aboolean field can be set to true, false, 1 to indicate true, or 0 to indicate false.• In the 2010.2 endpoint and beyond, SuiteTalk validates boolean values. Each valuemust be a true xsd boolean (0,1,true,false) as per the W3C spec. For details, seethe spec here.SuiteTalk Platform Guide