What is a web service endpoint

Question

Let s say my web service is located at http   localhost 8080 foo mywebservice and my WSDL is at http   localhost 8080 foo mywebservice wsdl   Is http   localhost 8080 foo mywebservice an endpoint  i e   is it the same as the URI of my web service or where the SOAP messages received and unmarshalled   Could you please explain to me what it is and what the purpose of it is

User · Answer

A web service endpoint is the URL that another program would use to communicate with your program. To see the WSDL you add ?wsdl to the web service endpoint URL.

Web services are for program-to-program interaction, while web pages are for program-to-human interaction.

So: Endpoint is: http://www.blah.com/myproject/webservice/webmethod

Therefore, WSDL is: http://www.blah.com/myproject/webservice/webmethod?wsdl

To expand further on the elements of a WSDL, I always find it helpful to compare them to code:

A WSDL has 2 portions (physical & abstract).

Physical Portion:

Definitions - variables - ex: myVar, x, y, etc.

Types - data types - ex: int, double, String, myObjectType

Operations - methods/functions - ex: myMethod(), myFunction(), etc.

Messages - method/function input parameters & return types

ex: public myObjectType myMethod(String myVar)

Porttypes - classes (i.e. they are a container for operations) - ex: MyClass{}, etc.

Abstract Portion:

Binding - these connect to the porttypes and define the chosen protocol for communicating with this web service. - a protocol is a form of communication (so text/SMS, vs. phone vs. email, etc.).

Service - this lists the address where another program can find your web service (i.e. your endpoint).

User · Answer

An Endpoint is specified as a relative or absolute url that usually results in a response   That response is usually the result of a server-side process that  could  for instance  produce a JSON string   That string can then be consumed by the application that made the call to the endpoint   So  in general endpoints are predefined access points  used within TCP IP networks to initiate a process and or return a response   Endpoints could contain parameters passed within the URL  as key value pairs  multiple key value pairs are separated by an ampersand  allowing the endpoint to call  for example  an update insert process  so endpoints don   t always need to return a response  but a response is always useful  even if it is just to indicate the success or failure of an operation

User · Answer

In past projects I worked on  the endpoint was a relative property   That is to say it may or may not have been appended to  but it always contained the protocol   host port partOfThePath   If the service being called had a dynamic part to it  for example a  param dynamicValue  then that part would get added to the endpoint   But many times the endpoint could be used as is without having to be amended   Whats important to understand is what an endpoint is not and how it helps   For example an alternative way to pass the information stored in an endpoint would be to store the different parts of the endpoint in separate properties   For example   hostForServiceA someIp portForServiceA 8080 pathForServiceA  some service path hostForServiceB someIp portForServiceB 8080 pathForServiceB  some service path   Or if the same host and port across multiple services   host someIp port 8080 pathForServiceA  some service path pathForServiceB  some service path   In those cases the full URL would need to be constructed in your code as such   String url    http       host         port   pathForServiceA          dynamicParam         dynamicValue    In contract this can be stored as an endpoint as such  serviceAEndpoint http   host port some service path dynamicParam    And yes many times we stored the endpoint up to and including the       This lead to code like this   String url   serviceAEndpoint   dynamicValue    Hope that sheds some light

User · Answer

Simply put  an endpoint is one end of a communication channel  When an API interacts with another system  the touch-points of this communication are considered endpoints  For APIs  an endpoint can include a URL of a server or service  Each endpoint is the location from which APIs can access the resources they need to carry out their function   APIs work using    requests    and    responses     When an API requests information from a web application or web server  it will receive a response  The place that APIs send requests and where the resource lives  is called an endpoint   Reference  https   smartbear com learn performance-monitoring api-endpoints

User · Answer

A endpoint is a URL for web service And Endpoints also is a distributed API      The Simple Object Access Protocol  SOAP  endpoint is a URL  It identifies the location on the built-in HTTP service where the web services listener listens for incoming requests    Reference  https   www ibm com support knowledgecenter SSSHYH 7 1 0 4 com ibm netcoolimpact doc dsa imdsa web netcool impact soap endpoint c html

User · Answer

Updated answer  from Peter in comments        This is de  old terminology   use directally the WSDL2  endepoint    definition  WSDL2 translated  port  to  endpoint        Maybe you find an answer in this document   http   www w3 org TR wsdl html     A WSDL document defines services as collections of network endpoints  or ports  In WSDL  the abstract definition of endpoints and messages is separated from their concrete network deployment or data format bindings  This allows the reuse of abstract definitions  messages  which are abstract descriptions of the data being exchanged  and port types which are abstract collections of operations  The concrete protocol and data format specifications for a particular port type constitutes a reusable binding  A port is defined by associating a network address with a reusable binding  and a collection of ports define a service  Hence  a WSDL document uses the following elements in the definition of network services          Types    a container for data type definitions using some type system     such as XSD     Message    an abstract  typed definition of the data being    communicated    Operation    an abstract description of an action supported by the    service    Port Type   an abstract set of operations supported by one or more    endpoints    Binding    a concrete protocol and data format specification for a    particular port type    Port    a single endpoint defined as a combination of a binding and a    network address      Service    a collection of related endpoints       http   www ehow com info 12212371 definition-service-endpoint html     The endpoint is a connection point where HTML files or active server pages are exposed  Endpoints provide information needed to address a Web service endpoint  The endpoint provides a reference or specification that is used to define a group or family of message addressing properties and give end-to-end message characteristics  such as references for the source and destination of endpoints  and the identity of messages to allow for uniform addressing of  independent  messages  The endpoint can be a PC  PDA  or point-of-sale terminal

User · Answer

This is a shorter and hopefully clearer answer    Yes  the endpoint is the URL where your service can be accessed by a client application  The same web service can have multiple endpoints  for example in order to make it available using different protocols

[web-services] What is a web service endpoint?

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