Monday, April 28, 2003

Source: ShowUsYour-Blog!; 4/28/2003; 9:55:48 AM The long weekend. I'm *still* studying for my Xml Web Services exam (70-310). I'm nearly comfortable with Windows Services, Serviced Components, and - thanks to Mads - Remoting is also starting to make some sense now. Here's the killer... all along I had fooled myself into beleiving that WebServices would be the easiest part of the exam. Like most people, I've successfully un-commented the HelloWorld() web method that ships with the VS WebService template and consumed it from another ASP.NET application. Over time, I've also done a few other samples: such as AddNumbers(), MultiplyNumbers() and so forth. However, I can tell you that this long-weekend I spent at least 18 hours struggling to consume a single WebService!! Throughout that ordeal has been a real path to enlightenment. Here are just a couple of foundational things that I had completely discounted before this weekend that I now have a fearful respect for: the discovery process (Disco and WSDL) and SOAP. I'm not really quite sure how I could have been so ignorant, but I'm pleased to say that I'm now reasonably comfortable with how all of the major WebService chunks fit together. I've discovered and built a proxy for a WebService from both VS.NET and the command line, I've altered the WSDL (pronounced "Woozdel") file so that a service hosted over Https can be discovered and referenced via VS.NET. Here's a list of things that still I cannot do however: On a webservice that is served over https, browse to the .asmx file and [Invoke] the test form. What happens?... the new window that opens to display the results opens in Http (as opposed to Https). How do you fix that? If I write a custom .wsdl file, how do I get it to be the default file when you request it via: http://servername/MyService.asmx?WSDL. It seems to me that you cannot replace the default one that is generated by ASP.NET and, to reference a custom one, you have to browse directly to it, i.e.: http://servername/MyService.wsdl Same for .disco files Consume a service over Https with a certificate that I've generated, but is not trusted by Windows. Don't think you can do it? My main feeling after this weekend is that, at some stage, I'm going to have to devote some time to understanding (I mean *REALLY* understanding) SOAP! Can someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that [ShowUsYour-Blog!] 1:34:04 PM    trackback []     Articulate []