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Altova tools let you tackle real-world Web services development on all of the major Web services platforms, including Microsoft® .NET, Eclipse, and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Learn more about Web services and relevant support in Altova software tools below.

Web services are software components that are made available over intranets, extranets, and the Internet using Web technologies and a standardized XML-based messaging system. Web services are designed to be accessed by other applications and vary in complexity from simple operations such as checking a bank account balance online to complex systems for CRM (customer relationship management), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and so on. Since they are based on open standards such as HTTP and XML-based protocols including SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI, Web services are hardware, programming language, and operating system independent. This means that applications written in different programming languages and running on different platforms can seamlessly exchange data using Web services.

Follow the links below to learn more about Web services technologies and how they are supported in Altova tools.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language) is an XML-based language used to describe and locate Web services. It is the language used by UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration), an XML-based internet registry where businesses list information about themselves and their available Web services. WSDL works hand-in-hand with SOAP (see below). WSDL describes a Web service and the functionality it provides, while SOAP is used by the client application to actually call the functions listed in the WSDL description.

While it’s possible to write WSDL files manually, it’s often easier work with a graphical WSDL representation that allows you to immediately visualize and manipulate the structure of your WSDL document. To help you write and validate WSDL documents quickly and easily, Altova XMLSpy® 2008 features a graphical WSDL editor that displays the WSDL file structure as well as the WSDL elements grouped by operations, portTypes, bindings, and services. You can manipulate the file by dragging and dropping elements, and context-sensitive windows and entry helpers provide intelligent editing options.

Once a WSDL is created, implementing the Web service it describes involves writing the code to access the data required for each transaction, which can be a complex and time-consuming process.

Altova MapForce® 2008 takes the complexity out of Web services implementation by allowing you to build Web services visually using a highly-intuitive graphical design interface. With MapForce, you simply map between operations in WSDL transactions by dragging connecting lines between data sources, data processing rules, and WSDL operations. Supported data sources include XML files, relational databases, flat files, EDI messages, Excel 2007 (OOXML), and existing Web services. Once you’ve defined mappings for all the transactions in your WSDL file, MapForce autogenerates the C# or Java code required to implement the Web service on a server.

In addition to its ability to generate new Web services, MapForce allows you to map data to and from existing Web services for converting data or building data integration applications. You can connect to and consume an existing Web service as a data mapping source, target, or data processing function.

In addition to its advanced XML Schema management capabilities, SchemaAgent® 2008 now allows you to visualize and manage relationships between WSDL documents and other files in SchemaAgent.

SOAP is an XML-based protocol for accessing Web services that allows disparate applications to exchange information over networks using XML syntax. SOAP acts as an “envelope” to package the XML messages sent between client applications and Web services. WSDL and SOAP work together with WSDL providing detailed descriptions of a Web service and SOAP providing the actual data transport between the Web service and the requesting client application (usually over HTTP).

To simplify the building of Web services, Altova XMLSpy® 2008 provides full SOAP capabilities for interpreting WSDL documents and creating SOAP requests to call the functionality listed in the WSDL description. Then, you can submit the request to the Web service and view the SOAP response from within XMLSpy. To test and troubleshoot your applications, XMLSpy also includes a unique SOAP Debugger that acts as a proxy between a Web services client and server, allowing you to inspect and verify each transaction.

The XMLSpy® 2008 code generation facilities allow you to bind XML Schema data elements to class files for use in Web services applications.

Popular platforms for Web services development include Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). XMLSpy® 2008 is the only tool of its kind to support seamless integration with Visual Studio and Eclipse, and also provides built-in support for editing J2EE configuration files. This flexibility allows you to seamlessly harness the powerful XML and Web services development capabilities of XMLSpy from within your IDE of choice.

Web services often require the ability to access data stored in dissimilar formats such as XML, databases, flat files, EDI, and Excel 2007 (OOXML) Altova MapForce® 2008 allows you to visually define data mappings to integrate XML, database, flat file, EDI, and Web services data. Then, it autogenerates code in XSLT 1.0/2.0, XQuery, Java, C++, or C# to implement the data transformation in your Web services application.

Complete Web Service Development

By creating a WSDL file in XMLSpy, then building the corresponding Web service and generating program code in MapForce, you can build a complete Web service visually – without having to write a single line of code! All that’s left to do is compile the code generated by MapForce and deploy it on a server. The resulting increases in productivity and code quality are staggering.

The Web services capabilities of XMLSpy and MapForce are both included in the Altova MissionKit. Get up to 8 software tools for the price of 2 with the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008! The MissionKit bundles Altova's intelligent application development and data management tools to meet the needs of software architects and XML developers. Download a free trial now!