Add Web services

You generate SOAP or JSON Web services within BAM.

Web services are a standard way of communicating between applications over an intranet or Internet. They define how to communicate between two entities: a server that exposes services and a client that consumes services. Web services may provide programmable access to the functions of a form or a standalone service without a form.

The Business Application Modeling (BAM) tool contains entities that represent the web server and service (see Figure 1 ):

  • Web Service Server

    The Web Service Server entity contains the main logic to publish services. It listens for incoming requests and executes the relevant service operation.

  • Web Service (standalone)

    A standalone Web Service entity generates the code for a single standalone Web Service.

  • CRUD Form + Web Service

    A CRUD form and Web Service entity generates the code for a CRUD form (a GUI doing create, read, update and delete functionality) and the code for a single standalone Web Service. There is no relation between the form and standalone Web service, however you can use the same object in two different situations: to display a CRUD form and to define a Web Service.

  • Zoom Form + Web Service
    A Zoom form and Web Service entity generates the code for a Zoom form (a GUI supporting read operations only) and the code for a single standalone Web Service. There is no relation between the form and standalone Web service, however you can use the same object in two different situations: to display a read-only form and to define a Web Service.
    Note: Only Read operation is generated for a Zoom form and Web Service entity.

BAM also generates the code for registering the web service with the web server.

Figure: Web Services in BAM

This figure is a diagram showing how Web services work in BAM. The contents are described in the surrounding text.

You can generate both SOAP or JSON Web services. For more information on the differences between SOAP and JSON (or RESTful) Web services, refer to the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.