A web service endpoint alias represents the network address and, optionally, any security credentials to be used with web services. You can use the network address properties to enable dynamic addressing for web services. The security credentials can be used to control both transport-level and message-level security for web services.

In web service descriptors, an endpoint alias is associated with a binder. API Gateway uses a binder to collect the definitions for addresses, communication protocols, and data formats for a particular port type in one container to collect the definitions for addresses, communication protocols, and data formats for a particular port type in one container

For a provider web service descriptors, the endpoint alias is used to construct the location= attribute of the address element (which is contained within the port element) when WSDL is requested for the web service. The security credentials might be used when constructing a response to a web service request. When you create a provider web service descriptor, you can specify an existing endpoint alias, which is displayed (and can be changed) from the default binder of the web service descriptors.

For a consumer web service descriptor and its associated web service connectors (WSC), the alias information (including the addressing information and any security credentials), is used at run time to generate a request and invoke an operation of the web service.

API Gateway uses message addressing endpoint aliases to send responses to endpoints other than the one that initiated or sent the request. That is, when WSAddressing is enabled and the request SOAP message contains a non-anonymous ReplyTo or FaultTo endpoint, API Gateway uses the message addressing endpoint alias to determine the authentication details to be used to send a response to the ReplyTo and FaultTo endpoints.

An endpoint alias is usually created for one or more of the following reasons:

Dynamic endpoint addressing. As the actual value of the endpoint is looked up at run time, using an endpoint alias saves you from having to specify or change the server information each time you use the web service.

Security. An endpoint alias is required in order to configure WS-Security for web service providers and consumers.

When you create web service endpoint aliases, keep the following points in mind:

API Gateway saves web service endpoint aliases at the location, Integration Server_directory\instances\ instance_name \config\endpoints. The host name and port are required for a provider HTTP or HTTPS web service endpoint alias, but are optional for a consumer HTTP or HTTPS web service endpoint alias.

If API Gateway on which a consumer web service descriptors reside, is located behind a firewall and the web service request needs to be routed through a proxy server, you can assign a proxy alias to the consumer web service endpoint alias. You can identify default provider web service endpoint aliases for HTTP and HTTPS. If a provider web service descriptor contains a binder set to the default alias, API Gateway uses the information in the default alias when constructing the WSDL for the descriptor.