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Web Services Adapter for WebFOCUS

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July 13, 2006, 05:27 PM
dballest
Web Services Adapter for WebFOCUS
Greetings-

I've been investigating the capabilities for the web service data adapter provided by WebFOCUS to consume data from some Microsoft .NET Web Services. Our initial prototypes are working pretty well.

I've been through the Web Service Adapter documentation, but don't seem to be able to figure out a couple of issues.

1) Web Service Input Parameters - How do I specify the value for input parameters for my webservice. I can see the definitions in the master file, I'm just not sure how they are used. Can I specify them in the FEX? (see master file, below)

2) SOAP Data Types - I am able to process return types where the web service returns a single array of a complex type or a single complex type. Does the web service adapter support more complicated document return types? (e.g. Arrays of Arrays of Complex Types, etc)

Thanks.

Here is the Master File for a simple webservice for input parameter testing. It accepts three input parameters (item1, item2, item3) in the request and returns them in the reply (StringItem, IntItem, DateTimeItem).

FILENAME=M6ILO, SUFFIX=SOAP , $
SEGMENT=INPUTTEST01, SEGTYPE=S0, $
GROUP=INPUTTEST01, ALIAS=InputTest01, USAGE=A44, ACTUAL=A76, $
FIELDNAME=ITEM1, ALIAS=item1, USAGE=A30, ACTUAL=A30, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(NEED_VALUE), $
FIELDNAME=ITEM2, ALIAS=item2, USAGE=I11, ACTUAL=A11, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(NEED_VALUE), $
FIELDNAME=ITEM3, ALIAS=item3, USAGE=HYYMDm, ACTUAL=A35, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(NEED_VALUE), $
FIELDNAME=__RESPONSE, USAGE=TX80, ACTUAL=TX, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(INTERNAL), $
SEGMENT=RESPONSE, SEGTYPE=S0, SEGSUF=XML , PARENT=INPUTTEST01, POSITION=__RESPONSE, $
FIELDNAME=RESPONSE, ALIAS=InputTest01Response, USAGE=A1, ACTUAL=A1, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(INTERNAL), $
FIELDNAME=INPUTTEST01RESULT, ALIAS=InputTest01Result, USAGE=A1, ACTUAL=A1, ACCESS_PROPERTY=(INTERNAL),
REFERENCE=RESPONSE, PROPERTY=ELEMENT, $
FIELDNAME=STRINGITEM, ALIAS=StringItem, USAGE=A30, ACTUAL=A30,
REFERENCE=INPUTTEST01RESULT, PROPERTY=ELEMENT, $
FIELDNAME=INTITEM, ALIAS=IntItem, USAGE=I11, ACTUAL=A11,
REFERENCE=INPUTTEST01RESULT, PROPERTY=ELEMENT, $
FIELDNAME=DATETIMEITEM, ALIAS=DateTimeItem, USAGE=HYYMDm, ACTUAL=A35,
REFERENCE=INPUTTEST01RESULT, PROPERTY=ELEMENT, $


Dev: WebFOCUS 7.6.10, Data Migrator 7.6.10
QA: WebFOCUS 7.6.10, Data Migrator 7.6.10
Prod: WebFOCUS 7.6.2, Data Migrator 7.6.8
Windows 2K3, Tomcat 5.5.17, IIS 6
Usage: HTML, PDF, Excel, Self-serve, BID and MRE
July 13, 2006, 07:22 PM
dhagen
1) Specify the input parameter with a WHERE statement in your table request. Eg WHERE ITEM1 EQ 'ENGLAND';

2) You should go to CSS on this one. I've consumed a WS with Arrays of Arrays, but that was over 2 years ago, and from what I can recall, it wasn't easy. I recall something about everything coming back as a single column that required multiple defines and computes just to assemble a report. I believe the outer array represented the first full column of the answerset, then the second instance of the outer array was the second full column of the answerset, and so on.

Sorry, not much to go on here.


"There is no limit to what you can achieve ... if you don’t care who gets the credit." Roger Abbott
July 13, 2006, 08:13 PM
dballest
The WHERE claused worked great. Thanks!

With regards to the multiple documents, I was afraid someone might reply with something like that. Odds are I'll avoid that for the time being. Smiler


Dev: WebFOCUS 7.6.10, Data Migrator 7.6.10
QA: WebFOCUS 7.6.10, Data Migrator 7.6.10
Prod: WebFOCUS 7.6.2, Data Migrator 7.6.8
Windows 2K3, Tomcat 5.5.17, IIS 6
Usage: HTML, PDF, Excel, Self-serve, BID and MRE