Using the Web Service Connector 

The Web Service Connector, supplied by SAP with EP 6.0 on WebAS 6.40, is an implementation of the NetWeaver portal connector framework API. It provides the ability to interact with any Web services, regardless of source, with the following advantages over connecting to Web services by other means:

●      As part of the portal connector framework, it uses the UME (user management engine) for authentication and user mapping.

●      Enables the use of automatic tools (such as the portal iView Wizard and Visual Composer) for the creation of iViews.

●      No offline proxy generation and deployment are required.

Technologies Used

●      WSDL (Web Service Definition Language)

●      SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

Connectivity

The only connection property that is mandatory for using the Web Service Connector is the WSDL URL for the specific Web service.

Authentication

The Web Service connector supports connections without authentication and with basic authentication, SSO, X.509 and assertion tickets.

No Proxy Client Generation

Using the connector to consume Web services does not require the generation of a client proxy.

Supported Capabilities

The following are supported by the Web Service Connector:

Basic Profile 1.0

For information about the Web service-related standards supported by the Web Service Connector, see Providing and Consuming Web Services.

J2EE Dynamic Proxy

The Web Service Connector supports the use of the J2EE dynamic proxy (a component of the J2EE Web Services Security service). The dynamic proxy URL property can be defined to a WSIL URL, in addition to a WSDL URL, thereby extending the capabilities of the Web Service Connector.

The dynamic proxy can also be configure to an SAP Web service.

Creating and configuring the dynamic proxy in the J2EE Visual Administrator:

...

       1.      Open the Java Configuration Browser of the NetWeaver Administrator.

       2.      Navigate to webservices → proxies → sap.com → DynamicWSProxies.

       3.      Create a destination and enter a name for the destination.

       4.      Configure the proxy parameters, as follows.

○       For configuring the proxy to a WDSL or WSIL URL, just enter the desired URL in the URL field.

http://myserver:50000/inspection.wsil

If any authentication is required, choose the authentication type in the Logon Data section and enter the appropriate values.

○       For configuring to an SAP system WSIL, for example for ESA (Enterprise Service Architecture), enter the URL as follows:

http://<server>:<port> where the <server> is the R/3 server and the port is 50000 + <SAP application instance number>

Enter the appropriate values for the System ID, Client, and Language parameters and then configure authentication in the Logon Data section.

For more information, see Web Services Security and Security Configuration.

Constraints

The following are not supported by the Web Service Connector:

●      Fault messages are treated as CF RuntimeException with the fault message text as the Exception message

●      SOAPattachments are not supported whether in the request or response

●      WSDL schemas must adhere to the following rules:

○       Schemas must not use the following tags: <any>, <choice>, <union>, <group>, <attributeGroup>

○       Schema must not contain recursive element definitions (an element may not include itself in its definition)

Data Handling

The data returned by means of the Web Service Connector can be rendered as viewable content in the NetWeaver portal either by means of Java code written by the content developer, or by automatic tools, such as the iView wizard. The automatic tools create Web Service iViews based on an iView template provided with the portal and uses iView wizard runtime code, which handles all function iViews for all connector framework connectors. (For more information about the system template, see the System Landscape section of the Portal Administration Guide.)

If content is to be provided by means of the automatic tools, it is important to be aware of how complex data types are handled by the Web Service Connector. For detailed information about this, see Data Type Handling by the Web Service Connector.