Web Services

Web Services allow an application to call another application using standard protocols such as SOAP* and WSDL* independent of platform and languages used.

Because they depend on current Internet standards, they allow preparing communicative applications on a local network or over the Web.

• Calling a Web Service from within 4D
• Publish a Web Service from within 4D

4D has the distinct capability of being able to function as a Web services client and/or server.

Web Services Client

4D v11 SQL is equipped with a wizard that allows you to entirely automate the procedure for generating Web Services call methods. This wizard translates the WSDL files provided by the remote service as 4D code that you can exploit directly.

Single-click Web Services provider

Publishing Web Services has never been so easy thanks to the 4D integrated Web Services server.

In a single click, existing project methods are transformed into publishable SOAP method. On request, 4D v11 SQL automatically provides service documentation in a WSDL (Web Service Description Language) file.

For the maximum level of openness, 4D v11 SQL handles RPC* and DOC* publications.

SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a RPC oriented protocol built on XML.
It allows sending messages between remote objects, which means that it authorizes an object to invoke object methods physically located on another server. The transfer is done most often using the HTTP protocol, but can also be done using another protocol, such as SMTP.
WSDL: Web Services Description Language
This is an attempt at standardization that gathers the description of elements that allows setting up access to a network service (Web Service). It uses the XML language and was created in 2001 at the W3C for standardization purposes.
RPC: Remote procedure call is a protocol that allows calling procedures on a remote computer using an application server. This protocol is used in client-server and allows managing different messages between these entities.
DOC: Document-oriented Web services