Client development tools

The following figure shows OpenEdge tools used to develop a Web service client to consume OpenEdge Web services.

Typically, you, as the client developer, obtain the WSDL file for the Web service (WorldWeather.wsdl in the above figure) by downloading it across the Internet or intranet.

Once you have the WSDL file, and any other required documentation on how to use the Web service interface, you can create the client application to access the Web service. Typically, Web service client toolkits provide a client interface generator that reads the WSDL file and generates source code for the client interface objects, which you can then access directly from the client application. These objects provide the interface that the client application needs to call Web service operations. Together with any SOAP library functions that the client requires, they generate and consume the SOAP messages to access and interact with the Web service.

At a minimum, you might have to manually read the WSDL file and hand-code the Web service client interface from it, using a library to handle the SOAP messages. But this is becoming a rare requirement, and no longer necessary using many Web service client platforms (such as Microsoft .NET, Iona XMLBus™, or OpenEdge). The OpenEdge Web services client platform provides the WSDL Analyzer to generate complete documentation for the client interface.

For more information on OpenEdge support Web services clients in general as well as the ABL client in particular, see OpenEdge Development: Web Services.