The Web Service Client can be used to test operations of a SOAP Web Service. It analyzes the WSDL file of the Web Service and presents the operations and the respective input fields to the user. Depending on the type of an input, the user is presented either a simple text input field, or a file upload field. The inserted values are sent to the Web Service and the resulting SOAP message is displayed. If there are any attached files (for example a converted image) in the returned message, those files can be downloaded via generated links.
WS-Client for IMPACT
WS-Client is developed mainly to test the Web Services that wrap software tools implemented in the context of the IMPACT project. On the start page, a list of already functioning tools is displayed. This list is read from an XML configuration file. Nevertheless, it is possible to test an arbitrary Web Service by entering a URL to a WSDL file into the respective input field.
Deployment
To install the application locally, you have to get the source files, build them and deploy the resulting archive on a Java application server.
Building the application
The project is managed using Maven 2. Again, you can use an IDE to build the sources. Alternatively, you can execute the following command in the project directory:
mvn package
Deploying the application
Maven generates a WAR archive in the 'target' directory. In Tomcat, you can deploy this archive using the Tomcat Manager application. Or, simply copy the archive into the 'webapp' directory of your Tomcat installation and restart Tomcat.
Configuration
In the simplest case, you enter a URL to a WSDL and an input form for the service will be presented.
It is also possible to manage a predefined list of WSDLs in an XML file that must look like this example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<services>
<service id="1">
<title>IMPACT Gimp Image Conversion Service</title>
<url>https://localhost/IMPACTGimpImageConversionProxy?wsdl</url>
<description>Perform image format conversion operations .</description>
</service>
<service id="2">
<title>IMPACT ImageMagick Image Conversion Service</title>
<url>https://localhost/IMPACTImageMagickProxy?wsdl</url>
<description>Perform image conversion operations.</description>
</service>
</services>
The URL pointing to such a file has to be present in the file
main/webapp/config.properties
Furthermore, it is possible here to configure one specific web service which should be loaded automatically every time.