About Web Service Connectors

A web service connector is a flow service that Integration Server creates at the time it creates the consumer web service descriptor. A web service connector contains the information and logic needed to invoke an operation defined in the WSDL document used to create the consumer web service descriptor.

When creating a consumer web service descriptor from a WSDL document, Integration Server creates a web service connector for each operation and portType combination contained in the WSDL document. For example, if a WSDL document contains two portType declarations and each portType contains three operations, Integration Server creates six web service connectors.

A web service connector:

Uses an input and output signature that corresponds to the input message, output message, and headers defined for the operation in the WSDL document. The web service connector signature also contains optional inputs that you can use to control the execution of logic in the web service connector.

Represents a SOAP fault structure in the output signature differently based on the version of the Integration Server on which the web service descriptor is created. To learn more about the output signature of a web service connector, see Web Services Developer’s Guide.

Contains flow steps that create and send a message to the web service endpoint using the transport, protocol, and location information specified in the web service’s WSDL document in conjunction with input supplied to the web service connector.

Contains flow steps that extract data or fault information from the response message returned by the web service.

Note:

A web service connector that worked correctly with previous versions of Developer, Designer, and Integration Server should continue to work with version 8.2 and later. In addition, any external clients created from WSDL generated from previous versions of Developer and Integration Server should continue to work as they did in the previous version.

For detailed information about a web service connector, such as a description of the web service connector signature, see the Web Services Developer’s Guide.