2.0 Understanding WSAPI Functionality

This section describes the broad concepts of how WSAPI works, and what clients need to do to successfully interact with it. It also provides an overview of the data model exposed by WSAPI and each of the available services and some of their interdependencies.

Before implementing your own client, you must select a Web services framework if you do not already have one. There are many commercial and open-source toolkits available to facilitate integration to the published WSDL. The WSAPI implementation conforms to SOAP 1.1 and 1.2 specifications. WSAPI uses Wrapped Document Literal encoding; this style currently has the broadest platform support. You can use any Web services integration platform that supports these standards and can digest the published WSDL. One recommendation is the Axis toolkit, located at the Axis Web site. It is available for both Java and C++ environments.

When you begin development, refer to the Javadoc for answers to more detailed questions about the API.

The following sections provide information about the WSAPI functionality: