About Web Service Endpoint Aliases

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. Integration Server uses a Integration Server 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 more information about associating an endpoint alias with a binder, see webMethods Service Development Help.

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.

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 will be displayed (and can be changed) from the default binder of the web service descriptors.

Integration Server uses message addressing endpoint aliases to send responses to endpoints other than the one that initiated or sent the request. That is, when WS-Addressing is enabled and the request SOAP message contains a non-anonymous ReplyTo or FaultTo endpoint, Integration Server 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. Because 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. For information about implementing WS-Security, see the information about WS-Security in Web Services Developer’s Guide Securing Web Services (WS-Security) .

WS-Addressing. Using the message addressing properties, you can specify the authentication credentials required to send a response to a different address than the request. The message addressing properties define the WS-Addressing information that can be attached to the SOAP message. For more information about WS-Addressing, see Web Services Developer’s Guide Web Services Addressing (WS-Addressing) .

WS-ReliableMessaging. Reliable messaging properties ensure the reliable delivery of the message between the two endpoints (web service and client or reliable messaging source and destination). You can configure reliable messaging properties specific to a web service endpoint or at a global level for all web service endpoints defined in the Integration Server.

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

Alias names must be unique within the specified usage (provider or consumer) and protocol. This can result in multiple endpoint aliases with the same name. For example, you can have a provider alias named "aliasOne" for the HTTP protocol. You could also have a consumer alias named "aliasOne" for the HTTP protocol and a provider alias named "aliasOne" for the HTTPS protocol.

Integration Server saves web service endpoint aliases at the following location: Integration Server_directory \instances\instance_name\config\endpoints

The host name and port are required for a provider HTTP/S web service endpoint alias, but are optional for a consumer HTTP/S web service endpoint alias.

If the Integration Server on which a consumer web service descriptors resides sits 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, Integration Server uses the information in the default alias when constructing the WSDL for the descriptor.