Calling a web service from a browser

[Alexandru Simion <al...@sec.co.ro>]

Hi ,

    Can, anyone, tell me if it is possible to invoke an axis web service 
from a browser ?
And, if yes,  what is the procedure to do that ?


Thanks

Sam.

Re: Calling a web service from a browser

[Ingrid Falk <in...@loria.fr>]

>>>>> "Alexandru" == Alexandru Simion <al...@sec.co.ro> writes:

    Alexandru> Hi , Can, anyone, tell me if it is possible to invoke
    Alexandru> an axis web service from a browser ?  And, if yes, what
    Alexandru> is the procedure to do that ?

Yes, it should be possible. You either can write a cgi script in perl
and build the SOAP message using SOAP::Lite or use the Servlet Java
class: you get the query string in the servlet's doGet method, do
whatever you like with it - make the soap call - get the response etc.
However to do the latter you have to have a servlet container running
and it has to be properly configured.


Ingrid

Re: Calling a web service from a browser

[Tom Myers <to...@dreamscape.com>]

Alexandru Simion wrote:
> Hi ,
> 
>    Can, anyone, tell me if it is possible to invoke an axis web service 
> from a browser ?
> And, if yes,  what is the procedure to do that ?

If you have a recent browser (Moz or IE 6, anyway) supporting XMLHTTP calls,
then there's no problem doing it in Javascript. You get your uri, soapAction,
and envelope (as a string), say for an amazon keyword search request you'd have
    "http://soap.amazon.com/onca/soap",
    "KeywordSearchRequest",
    doAmazonKeywordSearchEnvelope(token,keyword)
where "token" is your Amazon token and "keyword" is what you're searching for;
then you go like so:

     var inIE = document.all != null;
     var xmlhttp=null;
     if(inIE) xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject('MSXML2.XMLHTTP');
     else xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
     if(!xmlhttp)
       return alert("can't initialize xmlhttp object");
     if(!inIE)
       netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.
         enablePrivilege("UniversalBrowserRead");
     xmlhttp.open('POST',uri,false);
     xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("SOAPAction", soapAction)
     xmlhttp.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8")
     xmlhttp.send(envelope);
     var result=xmlhttp.responseXML;

and there you've got it. Mozilla also lets you work at a higher level, but
this code does work on both, and an axis service should be no problem as
long as you can figure out the envelope. (If necessary, use a Java client
and then use tcpmon or whatever to see what's actually being passed, then
imitate in Javascript. Crude, but you end up with a light-weight client.)
(Comments appreciated)

Tom Myers

RE: Calling a web service from a browser

[Dennis Sherman <de...@endinfosys.com>]

http://<host>:<port>/axis/services/Version?method=getVersion

for example, with a standard installation of axis, will return an 
XML document to your browser (which IE, at least, displays fairly 
nicely).  For a more complex web service, add parameters using 
standard URL formation rules.

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexandru Simion [mailto:alexandru.simion@sec.co.ro]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 8:15 AM
To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
Subject: Calling a web service from a browser


Hi ,

    Can, anyone, tell me if it is possible to invoke an axis web service 
from a browser ?
And, if yes,  what is the procedure to do that ?


Thanks

Sam.