WSIF API

The WSIF API supports the invocation of Services defined in WSDL. WSIF is intended to be used in both WSIF clients and also in Web service intermediaries.

The WSIF API is driven by the abstract service description in WSDL; it is completely independent of the actual binding used. This makes the API more natural to work with, because it uses WSDL terms to refer to message parts, operations, and so on.

The WSIF API was designed for the WSDL usage model; to pick a port that supports the port type needed, then invoke the operation by providing the necessary abstract input message consisting of the required parts, without worrying about how the message is mapped to a specific binding protocol.

Other Web service APIs, for example SOAP APIs, are not designed on WSDL, but for a specific binding protocol with its associated syntax; for example, target URIs and encoding styles.

The WSIF API's main interfaces are described in the following help topics:

• Creating a message for sending to a port (the WSIFMessage interface).
• WSIF API reference: Finding a port factory or service (the WSIFService interface and the WSIFServiceFactory class).
• WSIF API reference: Using ports (the WSIFPort interface and the WSIFOperation interface).

Note: You must ensure that your application uses only one thread to call WSIF.

For more information, see these help topics:

• WSIFService interface
• WSIFServiceFactory class
• WSIFPort interface
• WSIFOperation interface
• WSIFOperation - Context
• WSIFOperation - Asynchronous interactions reference
• WSIFOperation - Synchronous and asynchronous timeouts reference