Deploying a web service

To implement a BDE web service, you must import the WSDL file that defines this service and then deploy the WSDL file to the web server. You perform both tasks in the web application of the Connector for Web Services, on various web pages of the c4ws servlet.

To deploy a BDE web service:

  1. Start the c4ws web application.

    Ensure the Connector for Web Services is running.

    For detailed information on how to start and stop the connector web application, see Starting and stopping the connector.

    When the connector is started, you can view its index page by specifying this URL address in your web browser:

    http://<web server host>:<port nr>/c4ws/

    The access of the web pages of the connector is restricted with Tomcat authentication. Therefore, you must log on as a user with Tomcat Manager privileges.

  2. Check LN connections.

    On the ERP Servers page of the connector, check whether the connections to the required LN Servers are appropriately configured. To navigate from the connector's index page to the ERP Servers page, click ERP Servers.

    For more information about the configuration of LN Server connections, see Configuring Infor LN or Baan application servers and the Add/Modify an ERP Server page.

    Note: You can also directly navigate to the ERP Servers page by entering the page's URL address http://<web server host>:<port nr>/c4ws/cp.jsp.
  3. Deploy a BDE Web Service.

    On the Deploy BDE Web Services page of the connector, select a BDE web service from an LN server, import the corresponding WSDL file in the connector application and deploy the WSDL file to the Tomcat web server.

    Complete these steps:

    1. Navigate from the connector's index page to the Deploy BDE Web Services page by clicking Deployed Web Services page and Deploy BDEs.
    2. On the Deploy BDE Web Services page, indicate which LN server you want to access by selecting a server from the drop-down list of the ERP Server field. This list only contains the ERP Servers for which the connection with the connector has been configured. After you selected an LN server, the connector lists all the BDE web services that are available on this server. The web services are named after the associated BDE business objects, for example, Customer or Purchase Order.
    3. Select one of the available BDE web services.
    4. Click Deploy. The Deployment Result page shows whether the deployment of the web service was successful.
After successful deployment, a web client can use the web service to call methods on the involved BDE business object by sending SOAP messages that conform to the imported WSDL file. To retrieve this WSDL file, click WSDL on the connector's Web Services Status page ( http://<web server host>:<port nr>/c4ws/services).

In a multi-tenant cloud environment, no web services are displayed on the Web Services Status page. In this case you can download the WSDL file by completing these steps:

  1. Start the Business Objects (ttadv7500m000) session in LN UI.
  2. Select the appropriate Business Object for the BDE.
  3. Select Actions > Download WSDL.

Afterwards, you can edit the soap:address in the downloaded file to suit your needs.

The <soap:address> in the <wsdl:port> element of the WSDL file denotes the end point of the SOAP message, which is the URL address where the message is delivered. This address contains the location of the web server, the name of the web application, and the location of the server. In our case, the location of the server is indicated by the Identifier of the LN server hosting the BDE business object that is exposed by the web service.

This example shows the <soap:address> in a WSDL file of a web service to expose Areas BDEs:

<wsdl:service name="AreasService">
  <wsdl:port binding="bo:AreasSoapBinding" name="AreasSoapPort">
    <soap:address location="http://localhost:8080/c4ws/services/Areas/MyBackEnd123" /> 
  </wsdl:port>
</wsdl:service>