Testing a Web Service Reference Created from a WSDL

After you have created a Web service reference, you can test it on the Test Web Service Reference page.

To test a Web service reference:

1. Navigate to the Web Service References page. See "Accessing the Web Service References Page".
2. From View, select Report.
3. Click the Run icon adjacent to the Web Service reference name.
   The Test Web Service Reference page appears. The Web service name and URL endpoint display at the top of the page.
4. From Operation, select an operation (that is, the method to be executed).
5. Under Input Parameters, enter the appropriate values.
6. Click Test.
   The message request and response appear at the bottom of the page.

Creating a Web Service Reference Based on a WSDL

When you create a Web service reference based on a WSDL, you must decide how to locate the WSDL. You can locate a WSDL in two ways:

• By searching a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry
• By entering the URL to the WSDL document

A UDDI registry is a directory where businesses register their Web services.

Creating a Web Service Reference by Searching a UDDI Registry

To create a Web service by searching a UDDI registry:

1. Navigate to the Web Service References page. See "Accessing the Web Service References Page".
2. Click Create.
3. Select Based on WSDL and click Next.
4. When prompted to search a UDDI registry to find a WSDL, click Yes then Next.
5. For UDDI Location, enter a URL endpoint to a UDDI registry and click Next.
6. For Search, specify the following:
   
   1. Search Type - Specify whether to search for a business name or a service name. You cannot search for both.
   2. Name - Enter the business name or service name to search for. Use the percent (%) symbol as a wildcard character.
   3. Optionally indicate if the search should be case-sensitive or an exact match.
   4. Click Search.
   5. When the search results appear, make a selection and click Next.
   A summary page appears describing the selected Web service.
7. Review your selection and click Next to continue.
   The URL to the WSDL document displays in the WSDL Location field.
8. Click Finish.

The Web service reference is added to the Web Service References Repository.

Creating a Web Service Reference by Specifying a WSDL Document

To create a Web service by specifying a URL to a specific WSDL document:

1. Navigate to the Web Service References page. See "Accessing the Web Service References Page".
2. Click Create.
3. Select Based on WSDL and click Next.
4. When prompted to search a UDDI registry to find a WSDL, click No then Next.
5. In WSDL Location, enter the URL to the WSDL document.
6. Click Finish.

The Web service reference is added to the Web Service References Repository.

Web Service Data Sources (Virtual Table Support)

To access data (returned from single or multiple Web service invocations) through a database table, create a virtual table through a Web service data source. This table function allows you to query a set of returned rows as though it were a table.

The client invokes a Web service and the results are stored in a virtual table in the database. You can pass result sets from function to function, allowing you to set up a sequence of transformation without a table holding intermediate results. To reduce memory usage, you can return the result set rows a few at a time within a function.

By using Web services with the table function, you can manipulate a range of input values (from single or multiple Web services) as a real table. In the following example, the inner SELECT creates rows whose columns are used as arguments for invoking the CALL_WS Web service call-out. The table expression could be used in other SQL queries, for constructing views, and so on.

SELECT <some-columns> 
FROM
  TABLE(WS_TABFUN(CURSOR(SELECT s FROM <some_table>))),
WHERE...