Invoking Web services through SOAP requires serialization and deserialization of datatypes, and the building and parsing of XML-based SOAP messages.
The pbwsclient170.pbx file contains objects for the .NET Web service engine that enable you to perform these tasks without extensive knowledge of the SOAP specification and schema, the XML Schema specification, or the WSDL specification and schema. You can use these objects after you import the extension file into a PowerBuilder Web service application.
If you use the EasySoap Web service engine, you can import the pbsoapclient170.pbx file or the pbwsclient170.pbx file into your PowerBuilder applications. However, the pbwsclient170.pbx file requires the .NET 2.0 Framework on design-time and runtime machines, even if you are not using the .NET Web service engine. Both extension files contain the same objects, and you use these objects and their methods in similar ways.
Using a PBD file
In earlier releases of PowerBuilder, instead of importing an extension file, you needed to add a PBD file to the application library list. Although this is no longer necessary, the setup program installs PBD files (containing the same SoapConnection and SoapException objects as the extension files) in the Appeon\Shared\PowerBuilder directory. You can use the pbwsclient170.pbd or the pbsoapclient170.pbd instead of importing object definitions from the pbwsclient170.pbx or pbsoapclient170.pbx file.
To add definitions from a PowerBuilder extension file to an application library, right-click the library in the System Tree and select Import PB Extensions from the pop-up menu. Browse to the Appeon\Shared\PowerBuilder directory and select the extension file that you want to use.
After you import the PBWSClient170.pbx or the PBSoapClient170.pbx file to your application, the following objects display in the System Tree:
|
Object |
Description |
|---|---|
|
soapconnection |
Used to connect to a SOAP server |
|
soapexception |
Used to catch exceptions thrown from soapconnection |
When you create a Web service client application, you must deploy the extension file that you use along with the client executable to a directory in the application's search path. You can use the Runtime Packager tool to automatically include the extension files required by your Web service applications.
