Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard - Mac Development Manual page 1100

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS
Using Web Elements and External Objects
• WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
• UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration)
Supporting web services with SOAP
SOAP provides a standard XML structure for sending and receiving web service requests and responses over the
Internet. Usually you send SOAP messages using HTTP, but you also can send them using SMTP and other protocols.
ColdFusion integrates the Apache Axis SOAP engine to support web services.
The ColdFusion Web Services Engine performs the underlying functionality to support web services, including
generating WSDL files for web services that you create. In ColdFusion, to consume or publish web services does not
require you to be familiar with SOAP or to perform any SOAP operations.
You can find additional information about SOAP in the W3C SOAP 1.1 note at
Describing web services with WSDL
A WSDL document is an XML file that describes the purpose of the web service, where it is located, and how to access
it. The WSDL document describes the operations that you can invoke and their associated data types.
ColdFusion can generate a WSDL document from a web service, and you can publish the WSDL document at a URL
to provide information to potential clients. For more information, see
Finding web services with UDDI
As a consumer of web services, you want to know what web services are available. As a publisher of web services, you
want others to be able to find information about your web services. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
(UDDI) provides a way for web service clients to dynamically locate web services that provide specific capabilities. You
use a UDDI query to find service providers. A UDDI response contains information, such as business contact
information, business category, and technical details, about how to invoke a web service.
Although ColdFusion does not directly support UDDI, you can manually register or find a web service using a public
UDDI registry, such as the IBM UDDI Business Registry at
3.ibm.com/services/uddi/protect/registry.html.
You can find additional information about UDDI at
Working with WSDL files
WSDL files define the interface to a web service. To consume a web service, you access the service WSDL file to
determine information about it. If you publish your application logic as a web service, create a WSDL file for it.
WSDL is a draft standard supported by the World Wide Web Consortium. You can access the specification at
www.w3.org/TR/wsdl.
Creating a WSDL file
To publish a web service, you construct the service functionality and then create the WSDL file defining the service. In
ColdFusion, you use components to create web services. ColdFusion automatically generates the WSDL file for a
component that you use to produce a web service. For more information on creating web services, see
services" on page 1104.
For more information on components, see
"Working with WSDL
https://www-
www.uddi.org/about.htm.
"Building and Using ColdFusion
Last updated 1/20/2012
www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/.
files" on page 1095.
"Publishing web
Components" on page 177.
1095