Using xWeb

NetForum xWeb is a W3C World Wide Web Consortium standards-driven XML Web Service in the NetForum system. NetForum xWeb is represented to applications as a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) document - this means that the external interface of xWeb follows the W3C WSDL specification and that it conforms to that specification. Integrating to xWeb then is a matter of the client software application's ability to process a W3C WSDL interface.

NetForum xWeb uses the SOAP specification for message transport. By default, the xWeb WSDL interface contains http-get and http-post bindings but these should be disabled for implementation (please see the xWeb Recommendations).

NetForum xWeb uses the <soap:header/> element for the authentication token and uses the <soap:body/> element for the message payload. This follows general web service convention and provides structure for other means of authentication via WS-I Basic SecurityWS-I Basic Security profile in future versions of xWeb.

NetForum xWeb is essentially two interfaces: WSDL and the XML Schema (XSD) vocabulary.

WSDL

The WSDL represents the methods that can be invoked on a NetForum Facade Object.

XSD

The XSD represents the data relationships (data elements, data types, documentation) within each facade object. For xWeb, the facade object is the collection of discrete fields that can be accessed (retrieved, updated, inserted) by a single-method call within a single transaction. For example, the GetFacadeObject web method can be passed two parameters such as "Individual" and an active "ind_cst_key" for an individual's record in NetForum. If the web method is successful, the method will return all the elements (columns) for the Individual object - this includes all extender columns. If the method returns an error for this web method or for any web method, xWeb will publish the error in the <soap:fault/> element, again according to agreed-upon web service implementations.