General Questions
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What is web services technology? |
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Web services technology provides programmatic interfaces that are used
for application-to-application communication on the
network. The technology is similar to other technologies such
as RMI and RPC. However, web services technology standardizes
on widely used technologies such as
XML and HTTP and works
by sending XML messages over HTTP to interfaces located on the
network. These interfaces are XML based, generally making them
platform and language independent. Therefore, it is quite
practical to integrate two applications whose language and
platform are completely different.
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| Q: |
What is Web Services Package? |
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Web Services Package is a Mathematica application that
allows users to interact with web services
in Mathematica.
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| Q: |
What does Web Services Package do? |
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Web Services Package allows users to interact on the network with
applications that provide some additional functionality or
data to a Mathematica user. The package maps web
service operations into Mathematica functions that may
be called by Mathematica users, allowing them to access
new data--e.g., stock data, weather data, Wolfram
Research data, or other custom data provided via web
services. With the package Mathematica users can also
access new functionality such as language translation, file
conversion, or other remote functionality.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package work? |
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Web Services Package generally builds functions using a WSDL file that describes a web service. The
functions can also be built by hand using special convenience
functions provided in the package. Once these functions are
built, a user may call the functions in a manner similar to
calling any other Mathematica function. When a
function is called, the input is serialized into a SOAP message that is then sent to the web
service using J/Link. J/Link uses Java's HTTP functionality to perform a service
request. The service then processes the request and returns a
SOAP response message. This response is then transformed into
a Mathematica expression that can be conveniently used
in Mathematica.
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| Q: |
How is Web Services Package distributed? |
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Web Services Package is distributed in Mathematica 5.1.
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| Q: |
What platforms support Web Services Package? |
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Web Services Package is supported on all platforms that J/Link supports.
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| Q: |
Who should use Web Services Package? |
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Web Services Package is targeted for all Mathematica users.
Users of Web Services Package need only to know about
Mathematica. However, developers will probably use and
interact with Web Services Package the most because the
interface to web services is generic, and generally developers
use a customized interface that is implemented on top of the
generic interface provided by Web Services Package.
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| Q: |
Can I use Web Services Package to host my web
service? |
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No, Web Services Package is only used to consume web services.
It may not be used to provide a web service. Look for this feature in
upcoming versions of webMathematica.
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| Q: |
Whom should I contact if I have a question or a comment? |
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If you have a question or a comment, you should send email to webservices@wolfram.com.
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Technology Questions
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What is XML? |
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XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible and widely supported
language for describing data. XML is useful to web services
because it is very extensible, allowing users to represent
different kinds of data uniformly in a language supported
across many languages and platforms.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use XML? |
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Web Services Package builds XML messages to send to a web
service. The response is an XML message that Web
Services Package deserializes into a Mathematica
expression.
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| Q: |
Is knowledge of XML required to use Web Services Package? |
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XML knowledge could prove useful to users of Web Service
Package, but it is not required. Data required to
use Web Services Package can be a bit more complex and
defined than users of Mathematica are normally required
to use. Certain web services can use complex data types that
do not always map into Mathematica expressions with the
automatic conversions that Web Services Package
provides. In these cases, a knowledge of XML would be useful
to arrange a custom mapping.
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| Q: |
What is XML Schema? |
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XML Schema is used to describe a data type in XML. XML data may be validated
against the XML Schema defining its structure.
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How does Web Services Package use XML Schema? |
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Web Services Package uses XML Schema to define data types that are
used as parameters and to return types to web service operations.
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| Q: |
Does the package have full XML Schema support? |
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No, Web Services Package does not completely support the XML
Schema specification. There are some more-advanced data
types that do not work correctly with higher-level functions
of Web Services Package. However, there are
lower-level functions that allow users to build messages and
functions to their specification. Additional XML Schema
support will be added to future versions.
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| Q: |
Does Web Services Package provide XML Schema validation on
the client? |
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No, it doesn't. Validation is done only if the server provides it but
may be a feature in the future.
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| Q: |
What is HTTP? |
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HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a common protocol used by
applications communicating with distributed and
collaborative information systems. HTTP is best known for
its scalability and is the protocol of choice on the web.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use HTTP? |
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Web Services Package uses HTTP to transfer messages to and from
web services on the network.
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| Q: |
Does the package support any other protocols besides HTTP? |
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No, it doesn't, and there are no plans to add additional protocols at
this point.
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| Q: |
What is SOAP? |
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SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a web services-specific API
that governs the format of the request and response
messages. SOAP also governs how these messages are
processed.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use SOAP? |
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Web Services Package builds the SOAP messages that are sent to
web services as well as deserializes SOAP messages when they
are returned.
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| Q: |
What version of the SOAP specification does Web Services
Package support? |
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Web Services Package supports the SOAP 1.1 specification.
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| Q: |
Is knowledge of SOAP required to use Web Services Package? |
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A user generally does not need to know anything about SOAP to
use Web Services Package because the package takes
care of serializing input into a SOAP message as well as
deserializing output into Mathematica expressions.
To use the lower-level functions of Web Services
Package, SOAP knowledge may be useful.
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| Q: |
Does Web Services Package support other message
formats besides SOAP? |
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No, it doesn't, and there are no plans to add additional formats at this point.
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| Q: |
What is WSDL? |
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WSDL (Web Services Description Language) is a web services-specific
API that is used to describe what a web service looks like.
Using a WSDL file, an application can discover how an
operation works, bind to it, and use it dynamically
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use WSDL? |
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Web Services Package uses WSDL files to generate code
dynamically for calling web service operations
in Mathematica. Using a WSDL file, a user can bind
to an operation and use it seamlessly
in Mathematica. The user calls an operation just as
it calls any other operation in Mathematica.
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| Q: |
What version of the WSDL specification does Web Services
Package support? |
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Web Services Package supports the WSDL 1.1 specification.
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| Q: |
Is knowledge of WSDL required to use Web Services
Package? |
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No, it isn't. Knowledge of neither the WSDL file format nor the way
to process a WSDL file is required.
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| Q: |
What is J/Link? |
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J/Link is a toolkit that integrates Mathematica and
Java. It lets you call Java from Mathematica in a
completely transparent way.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use J/Link? |
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J/Link is used to invoke calls that send requests to web
service operations via HTTP.
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| Q: |
Is knowledge of Java required to use Web Services Package? |
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No, knowledge of Java is not required. The Web Services Package
interface is completely Java independent. The user may see
Java-related messages that are generally system errors
rather than user errors.
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| Q: |
What is WS-I Profiles? |
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WS-I Profiles is a web services specification that defines stricter
rules for using SOAP and WSDL web services, thus providing
easier integration and better interoperability.
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| Q: |
How does Web Services Package use WS-I Profiles? |
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Web Services Package uses WS-I Profiles as a guideline to promote higher
interoperability with web services available on the network.
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| Q: |
Does Web Services Package have full WS-I Profile support? |
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No, Web Services Package does not completely support the WS-I
Profile. There are some guidelines that limit the amount of
web services supported. However, this limitation should not
prevent web services that implement the WS-I Profile from
interacting with this client.
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