OpenEdge Management and OpenEdge Explorer: Configuration

Configuring OpenEdge Web Services
Configuring and managing Web services
6–2
The Web Services Adapter (WSA) is a Java servlet that exposes OpenEdge AppServer
applications as Web services. The WSA is installed and runs in the context of a Java servlet
engine (JSE) that runs in the context of a Web server.
To expose AppServer applications as Web services, the WSA serves a dual role:
• As a gateway between the SOAP request messages, which Web services and Web service
clients exchange, and ABL applications on the AppServer, which execute Web service
requests
• As an application server that hosts, manages, and provides communications and run-time
support for multiple deployed Web service applications
SOAP-AVM gateway
For any given Web service, the WSA is a gateway between SOAP and the ABL Virtual Machine
(AVM) running on the AppServer. As such, the WSA receives Web service method calls and
parameters sent as SOAP messages from Web service clients and converts them into ABL
function and procedure calls that the WSA invokes on a specified AppServer. In response, the
WSA also receives the return and output parameter values sent from the called ABL functions
and procedures on the AppServer and converts them into SOAP messages that it sends back to
the calling Web service clients.
Web Service Application Server
The WSA is where you deploy a Web service that you want to make available to clients. Once
deployed, it also allows you to manage the Web service individually and as part of a group of
Web services. This includes such options as making Web service definitions available to
potential clients as downloadable Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files and
making one or more Web services available as applications for access by clients.
To initially create Web service definitions, you use ProxyGen to define an existing set of
AppServer procedures and functions in terms of Web service objects. ProxyGen generates a
Web Service Mapping (WSM) file. This WSM file stores the Web service object definitions in
a form similar to a WSDL file, but without the final deployment information targeted to a
specific WSA installation.
Thus, when you deploy a Web service to a WSA, you specify the information including the
WSM file into a WSDL file that a specific WSA can use to provide the Web service definition
to Web service clients. This same process also creates a Web Service Application Descriptor
(WSAD) file that provides the Web service definition to a specific WSA in a form that allows
it to host the deployed Web service and manage its run-time behavior.