Integration Cloud 6.1.0 | SOAP APIs | Overview
 
Overview
Web services are building blocks for creating open, distributed systems. A web service is a collection of functions that are packaged as a single unit and published to a network for use by other software programs. For example, you could create a web service that checks a customer’s credit or tracks delivery of a package. If you want to provide higher-level functionality, such as a complete order management system, you could create a web service that maps to many different Integrations, each performing a separate order management function.
A SOAP API defines a web service and it encapsulates all the information of a web service. The SOAP API contains the message formats, data types, transport protocols, and transport serialization formats that should be used between the consumer (requester) and the provider of the web service. In essence, the SOAP API represents an agreement governing the mechanics of interacting with that service.
Integration Cloud allows you to write integration logic to integrate different types of applications. This logic can be exposed to the external world using SOAP APIs. A SOAP API is a service provided to external users.
Note:
Users who have the required project permissions under Settings > Project Permissions can create, update, delete, and execute SOAP APIs.
An operation is the WSDL element that exposes some functions of a web service and defines how data is passed back and forth. A SOAP API exposes one or more Integrations as operations, so each operation in a SOAP API corresponds to an Integration. The input for the Integration corresponds to the request body for the operation. The output of the Integration is the response body for the operation.
Using a SOAP client, you can invoke the SOAP operation externally by using either Basic Authentication or 2-way SSL. When the SOAP operation is invoked, the associated Integration gets executed.
You can create SOAP APIs by using an existing set of Integrations (from scratch) or by using a WSDL file:
*Build from scratch: You can create a SOAP API from an existing Integration. In this case, you specify the protocol and the use and style for the operations when creating the SOAP API. The Integration becomes an operation in the SOAP API. Integration Cloud uses the existing service signature as the input and output messages for the operation. You can add operations to a SOAP API or delete operations from a SOAP API that is created from scratch.
*Build with WSDL: You can create a SOAP API from an existing WSDL document. In this case, Integration Cloud uses the operation definitions from the WSDL to generate an Integration for each operation in the WSDL. You cannot add operations to a SOAP API created from a WSDL.