MessageBasedWebService
org.sdm.spa.MessageBasedWebService

The MessageWebService actor, provides the user with a plug-in interface to execute any WSDL-defined web service. Given a URL for the WSDL of a web service and an operation name that is included in the WSDL, this actor customizes itself to execute this web service operation.

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure- oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints (services). WSDL is extensible to allow description of endpoints and their messages regardless of what message formats or network protocols are used to communicate. More information on WSDL and realted standard can be found at: http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl

The user can instantiate the generic web service actor by providing the WSDL URL and choosing the desired web service operation. The actor then a utomatically specializes itself and adds ports with the inputs and outputs as described by the WSDL. The so instantiated actor acts as a proxy for the web service being executed and links to the other actors through its ports.

The WSDL is parsed to get the input, output and binding information. It dynamically generates ports for each input and output of the operation. This customization happens at the configuration time of a model. When the actor is fired at run time, it gets the binding information and creates a call object to run the model. Using this call object, it invokes the web service and broadcasts the response to the output ports. The above MessageBasedWebService actor expects XMLTokens as input and broadcasts XMLTokens as well.

Notices to users:



Author(s): Ilkay Altintas, Nandita Mangal
Version:$Id: MessageBasedWebService.java,v 1.5 2006/04/04 22:01:13 altintas Exp $


startTrigger
This is an optional input port that can be used to help the scheduling of the actor.

This port is activated by the hasTrigger parameter. Double-click on the actor to enable. Please enable it ONLY when the actor has no input and it is required for scheduling of the actor.

clientExecErrors
It outputs the errors if any occured when actor is executing. It outputs "NO ERRORS." if there are no exceptional cases.



wsdlUrl
The parameter for the URL of the web service WSDL.

methodName
The parameter for the method name.

userName
The userName to invoke the web service if necessary.

password
The password to invoke the web service if necessary.

hasTrigger
This is an parameter to activate the optional startTrigger port. Please activate it ONLY when the actor has no input and it is required for scheduling of the actor.