Extension ID

com.castsoftware.wbslinker

What's new?

Please see Web Services Linker - 1.6 - Release Notes for more information.

Description

The "Web Services Linker" (com.castsoftware.wbslinker) extension is a "dependent" extension that automatically creates links for "web services" between client and server components by following a particular protocol based on objects and names. The extension can be downloaded on its own as a standalone extension, however, it is usually automatically downloaded as a dependency with other extensions such as:

• HTML5 and JavaScript
• AngularJS
• Node.js
• TypeScript
• jQuery
• SAPUI5
• WCF
• JAX-RS
• Spring MVC
• Objective-C Analyzer

For example for the AngularJS extension:

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What does it do?

The Web Service Linker automatically creates cross-technology call links between client (front end) and server (back end) objects. For example, AngularJS front end connected to JEE/Spring MVC back end (click to enlarge):

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How does it do it?

The Web Services Linker supports two modes:

• REST services
• WSDL/SOAP services

The connection is made via four "root" objects:

...

...

HTTP GET Service

...

...

HTTP DELETE Service

...

...

HTTP POST/SOAP Service

...

...

HTTP PUT Service

REST services

The Web Service Linker searches for objects stored in the CAST Analysis Service schema whose type inherits from CAST_ResourceService or CAST_WebServiceLinker_Resource. These objects represent queries to web services on the client side. Then it searches for the web services on the server side: these are objects whose type inherits from CAST_WebService_Operation or CAST_WebServiceLinker_Operation.

When a match is found using the properties CAST_ResourceService.uri / CAST_WebServiceLinker_Resource.uri and CAST_WebService_Operation.identification.name / CAST_WebServiceLinker_Operation.identification.name and type of both objects, then a link is created.

Matching algorithm

The matching is done between using the properties CAST_ResourceService.uri / CAST_WebServiceLinker_Resource.uri and CAST_WebService_Operation.identification.name / CAST_WebServiceLinker_Operation.identification.name.

Before matching, the Web Services Linker transforms the CAST_ResourceService.uri using following rules, in this order:

• It replace all "//" with "/{}/" except "//" after ":" (to avoid replacing "http://"), supposing that a parameter was intended between both "/" (REST format).
• It removes everything after "?" in the uri (to suppress uri parameters part which are not part of REST format parameters).
• It adds a "/" at the end of uri when not present

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices//phone//

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/{}/phone/{}/

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices//phone/

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/{}/phone/

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices//phone

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/{}/phone/

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/{}/phone

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/{}/phone/

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices?office=1

...

https://www.castsoftware.com/offices/

 The result is then compared to CAST_WebService_Operation.identification.name / CAST_WebServiceLinker_Operation.identification.name using the endswith function, ignoring the uri part corresponding to the operation name part whose value is {}.

...

Examples of matches

A client side url like:

Examples

Server side

The Analysis Service schema contains an object CAST_WebService_GetOperation named /users/

@RequestMapping("/users")
public class UserController {
    
    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, produces = "application/json; charset=utf-8")
    @ResponseBody
    public PagedResources<UserResource> collectionList(...){
	   ...
    }

Client side

The Analysis Service schema contains an object CAST_AngularJS_GetResourceService whose property CAST_ResourceService.uri equals 'resources/scenarios/{}/'

return $resource('resources/scenarios/:id', {'id':'@id'}, {
	'query': { method: 'GET', isArray: false },
	'save': {method:'POST', isArray: false },
	'update': {method:'PUT', isArray: false },
	'notify': {method:'PUT', params: {notify: true}, isArray: false },
	'remove': {method:'POST', isArray: false, headers:{'X-HTTP-Method-Override':'DELETE'}}

WSDL/SOAP services

WSDL is generally used in the context of SOAP web services: calls are to an operation, and operations are identified by :

• operation name
• port type

Samples

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Client side

BPEL

Invocation of EmployeeTravelStatusPT.EmployeeTravelStatus:

<invoke partnerLink="employeeTravelStatus" 
	portType="emp:EmployeeTravelStatusPT" 
	operation="EmployeeTravelStatus"
	inputVariable="EmployeeTravelStatusRequest" 
	outputVariable="EmployeeTravelStatusResponse" />

Server side

JAX-WS

Reception of operation EmployeeTravelStatusPT.EmployeeTravelStatus:

import javax.jws.WebService;

@WebService(targetNamespace = "http://superbiz.org/wsdl")
public class EmployeeTravelStatusPT {

    public int EmployeeTravelStatus(int add1, int add2)
    {
        
    }
}

BPEL

Reception of operation TravelApprovalPT.TravelApproval:

<receive partnerLink="client" 
	portType="trv:TravelApprovalPT" 
	operation="TravelApproval" 
	variable="TravelRequest"
	createInstance="yes" />

Cross-Technology Transaction

...

• Web Technologies
  • HTML5/Javascript or TypeScript
    • Web Socket Service (WebSocket)
    • XMLHttpRequest Service (XMLHttpRequest)
    • Http Request Service (HttpRequest, Fetch, Axios, SuperAgent)
  • AngularJS
    • AngularJS Service ($resource)
    • Restangular Service (Restangular)
    • Http Service ($http)
  • Vue.js
    • Axios
    • Vue-resources
    • Fetch
  • jQuery
    • jQuery Service ($.ajax, $.get, $.getJSON)
    • SAPUI5 Service.
• Mobile
  • iOS (Objective-C, Swift)
    • NSURLConnection, NSURLSession
    • AFNetworking
  • Android
    • HttpClient
    • HttpURLConnection
    • AsyncTask
• .NET
  •  ASP.NET
    • SOAP Resource (SoapDocumentAttr, WebMethodAttr)
    • Razor HttpRequest
• JEE
  • Java
    • URLConnection, HttpURLConnection 
  • Spring
    • Rest Template
    • Web Util
    • Social Support
    • Web Reactive
  • Apache
    • WebClient
    • HttpClient
    • Utils URIBuilder
    • Wink Resource
    • Wink RestClient
  • Other
    • Retrofit2
    • RestHub Client
    • Feign
• Kotlin
  • Retrofit
• Other
  • Python
    • Urllib, Urllib2,
    • Httplib, Httplib2,
    • aiohttp, Flask

...

• Express Service (Express)
• Http Service (Http)
• Loopback
• Hapi.js
• Sails.js
• Restify
• Seneca, MQTT (messaging)
• AWS Lambda

...

• JAX-RS
  • Client Builder
  • WebTarget
  • Invocation
  • Reasteasy
  • WebResource
• SpringMVC (@Request/Put/Post/Get/Mapping)

...

• WCF Operation (OperationMethod)
• Web API

...

• SOAP Operation (WebServiceAttribute)

...