Web Services in Lotus Notes
There are new things added, and most of us are not came across those special changes. Web services in Lotus notes is one of such changes. With the release of Lotus Notes 7, they have added the facility to create and access the web services with the Lotus Notes.
A Web service is an archive of remote operations that can be called by sending messages over the Internet. A Web service provider publishes a Web service for query and use, and a Web service consumer calls operations from the service. A Web service provider makes available a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document that defines the service interface. The WSDL document is in XML format. What happens behind the interface is up to the provider, but most providers map the interface to procedure calls in a supported programming language. Incoming requests from a consumer are passed through to the underlying code, and results are passed back to the consumer.
Lotus Domino maps the WSDL interface to an agent-like Web service design element that can be coded in LotusScript or Java. To be used, the Web service must be on a Domino server with HTTP enabled. (We can test the Web service through an HTTP session in the Notes client preview.)
Access is through one of the following Domino URL commands:
?OpenWebService invokes the Web service in response to a SOAP-encoded message sent through an HTTP POST. An HTTP GET (for example, a browser query) returns the name of the service and its operations.
?WSDL returns the WSDL document in response to an HTTP GET.
Several approaches are possible for creating a Web service design element in Domino Designer. We can code it entirely in LotusScript or Java. In these cases, saving the design element generates a WSDL document that reflects the LotusScript or Java code. Or we can import an existing WSDL document. In this case, LotusScript or Java is generated that reflects the operations in the imported WSDL. The Web service design element saves the WSDL document as well as the code. If the public interface has not changed, the WSDL document stays as is. If, in our coding, we change anything that affects the public interface, a new WSDL is generated.
In Domino Designer, the Web service design element resides below Agents under Shared code. The Web service design window looks a lot like the agent design window. Click the New Web Service button to create a new Web service. Double-click an existing Web service to edit it.
