4. Calling a SOAP service

This page describes the steps for calling a web service using the SOAP protocol. This page also give you background information on how web services work within the Blueriq architecture. The following steps are required:

1. Importing

Because a SOAP service is neatly defined within a WSDL, it is possible to import such a WSDL file in Blueriq.

To import a WSDL file:

1. Make sure that the WSDL is supported. You can check that on the Web Services datasheet.
   
   As Blueriq Encore cannot retrieve files from external locations, you need to provide all required files in a flat zip file. If you are using import or include statements, make sure that they are changed to not point at remote locations.
   

   Example

   Instead of using

   <wsdl:import location="http://www.example.com/webservices/exampleservice?wsdl=ExampleService.wsdl" 
   	namespace="http://www.example.com/">
       </wsdl:import>

   use the following, and place CRMService.wsdl in the zip file when importing:

   <wsdl:import location="ExampleService.wsdl" 
   	namespace="http://www.example.com/">
       </wsdl:import>

2. In Blueriq Encore, select the branch level in the navigation panel → Import WSDL and provide the location of the WSDL file. If you have multiple files (for example: your WSDL is importing/including an XSD schema), provide a ZIP file with all files needed. 
3. Select the project for the import and you can choose whether to create a new module, or overwrite an existing one.
4. The option 'Generate Domain' will automatically generate a domain model for you, based on the XSD schema referred to from the WSDL. When this button is checked, entities, attributes and relations are created based on the type definitions of the XSD. When using an existing module, there may already be a domain model present, that uses identical names as in the XSD. When overwriting, conflicting elements are not created. Obviously, these problems do not occur if you use a new module. When 'Generate Domain' is unchecked, no domain model is generated for you. In that case, you can later match the elements from the XSD to your own domain (explained later). In general, it is advised to use a separate module for every WSDL in order to not mix the domain model for the web service with the domain model of your business.
   
5. After you press the "Select operations" button, you can choose which operations should be imported. These operations originate from the WSDL. You should only import the operations that you need, as the created domain model will be smaller in that case.
   
6. Now press the "Import" button and the WSDL should be imported. 

2. Mapping with Domain Model

Open your project and go the module which contains the web service. The module now has a Schema Set and a SOAP Service. These can be found in the navigation panel in the category named "Connectivity".

The Schema Set defines which entities, attributes and relations are used by the web service (they map the XSD to the domain model). The SOAP Service defines which entities are sent (the message parts from the WSDL). You use these elements to define what entities, attributes and relation in your domain correspond to concepts in the WSDL and XSD.

3. Creating a Service Call

Now that the web service is configured, you might want to call it. To call a web service in Encore, you need to create a service call. Choose the AQ_SoapServiceClient from the list of available service calls (do not forget to import the BlueriqBasicModelling Library). Every operation in the WSDL needs its own service call.

More information about the parameters and exit evens in the AQ_SoapServiceClient can be found here.

4. Using the Web service

After you have created your service call, you can use it inside a flow. When the service is executed, it will read the data needed from the domain model, starting from the singleton request instance. After receiving an answer from the server, the web service will store the data as new instances, starting from the singleton response instance. If a data mapping is used, the mapping is executed after the domain module in the web service module is filled.

A common error is that an empty message is sent to the server. The reason for this is that the domain model for the web service is not correctly initiated. If the web service returns an error message, Blueriq runtime will show this error.