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ColdFusion MX and Web Services. From Creation and Consumption. Introduction Neil Ross.
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ColdFusion MX and Web Services From Creation and Consumption
Introduction Neil Ross • Senior Application Architect with Automation Creations in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. neil@aciwebs.com / http://www.aciwebs.comFreelance application development as Codesweeper. neil@codesweeper.com / http://www.codesweeper.com • Certifications: ColdFusion Developer and ColdFusion Instructor • Author: Inside ColdFusion MXhttp://www.insidecoldfusionmx.com as well as online and CFDJ articles • Speaker: ColdFusion DevCon 2000 in DC, CFUGs, MMUGs, CFEurope 2003 • Founder and former manager of Central Penn CFUGCurrently manager and founder of Southwest Virginia MMUG
Overview • Explain Web Services • Examine how to create your own web services with ColdFusion MX • Examine how to consume an existing web service in ColdFusion MX • Examine how to publish your web services for consumption by the world
What are Web Services? • Web services encapsulate existing business processes for publishing to the web • A Web Service is a URL-addressable software resource that perform one or more functions • Web Services communicate using standard protocol known as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
Characteristics • A web service is accessible over the web • Web services communicate using platform-independent and language-neural web protocols • A web service provide an interface to be called by other programs • A web service can be registered and located through a web service registry
What would you use them for? • Expose existing resources to the web • Develop new applications from web services • Separate business logic from UI components • Bundle common functionality across web services • Provide Security (Authentication, Authorization) • Provide consistency among services
Common Web Services Examples of web services include the following: • User authentication and authorization • Credit card validation • Stock quotes • E-commerce • News and information syndication
Parts of a Web Service Web services consist of the following basic components: • Publishers create and provide application • Brokers maintain a registry of service providers • Consumers web pages that access and use the remote web service
Creating ColdFusion Components • ColdFusion components are the gateway to web services in ColdFusion MX • Write a bunch of code that’s really complicated to write the XML that comprises your WSDL document…???NO!!! • First step is to create a ColdFusion Component and it’s very very easy to do
CFC Code view <!--- ::: creating a ColdFusion component in code view ::: ---> <cfcomponent> <cffunction name="myFunction" access="public" returntype="string"> <cfargument name="myArgument" type="string" required="true"> <cfset myResult="foo"> <cfreturn myResult> </cffunction> </cfcomponent> Using code view in Dreamweaver MX, select File> New>, then select Dynamic Page from the Category menu and ColdFusion Component from the Dynamic Page menu:
CFC wizard view Select the + button on the component tab within the Application panel in DWMX Fill out information requested within the Create Component window.
View and Test your CFC • Of course, you don’t want to assume that your CFC works properly without proper testing • From the components tab in the Application panel, expand the component, then select the function to call • Drag and drop the selected component function into your CFML template <!--- ::: invoke the ColdFusion component ::: ---> <cfinvoke component="cdsettlement.act.users" method="authenticate_user" returnvariable="authenticate_userRet"> <cfinvokeargument name="username" value="enter_value_here"/> <cfinvokeargument name="password" value="enter_value_here"/> </cfinvoke>
Creating the Web Service • Select the Components in the Application Panel • Select Web Services from the select menu • Type in the URL of the WSDL file or the CFC with “?WSDL” appended • That’s it… click OK and it will be added to your list of available web services
Consuming Web Services • Connecting programmatically to a Web service is known as consuming it. • First… find the web service that you want to connect to • Write a bunch of code that’s really complicated so that you can connect to the web service but only if you know everything about the web service and its in/out parameters… ??? NO!!!
Consuming Web Services • Select the Components in the Application Panel • Select Web Services from the select menu • Drag and drop the web services function into the code editor
Web Services in the Real World • Currency exchange rates and conversion
Web Services in the Real World • Currency exchange rates and conversion code
Finding Web Services • Web services exist in UDDI registries • UDDI – Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
Finding Web Services • Microsoft UDDI Business Registry • IBM Web Services and UDDI • Xmethods
Conclusion • Web Services don’t have to be a mystery • CFMX allows for the easiest implementation of Web Services • Dreamweaver MX and ColdFusion MX for web services are the shizzle, fo sheezy! • For more information, contact me at:neil@aciwebs.com