EDT:Accessing a service

You can access services from a Rich UI application. This page gives code examples. For additional information, see Service bindings.

Accessing a dedicated service

The simplest way to deploy a service written in EGL is to include it with the Rich UI application. The service in that case is known as a dedicated service.

Assume that the service is named MyServiceType and the function of interest is named calculate. Here is a short example of the code necessary to access that service:

   call MyServiceType.calculate(myList) 
        returning to theCallBack
        onException theExceptionHandler;

Accessing an EGL service in either of its two forms

If the logic for a given service is written in EGL, the logic might be accessed as a dedicated service or as an EGL REST-RPC service. In that second case, the service is deployed outside of the Rich UI application, typically on a different server. 

Here is the simplest way to switch between accessing the identical EGL service logic in one way or another:

1. In your code, declare a binding variable and embed it in a call statement.
2. In the EGL deployment descriptor, define an entry.  To switch between the two forms of the same service logic, you can vary the entry in the same deployment descriptor or, more likely, can reference a different deployment descriptor with a same-named entry.
   
   

/********************************************************
 * Declare the binding variable                         * 
 ********************************************************/
   myBinding IHttp? = Resources.getResource("binding:myBinding");
 
/********************************************************
 * Call the service                                     * 
 ********************************************************/
   call MyServiceType.calculate(myList) 
      using myBinding
      returning to theCallBack 
      onException theExceptionHandler;
 
/********************************************************
 * Example: create a new EGL project for                *
 * "Web 2.0 client application with services". Add the  *
 * the Service type shown next to the server package,   * 
 * and add the Handler type to the client package.      *
 *                                                      *
 * Test the example in the Rich UI Preview tab          * 
 * as follows:                                          * 
 *                                                      *     
 *    1. Type valid input into the first text box;      * 
 *       for example: 5, 12, 4.                         *
 *                                                      * 
 *    2. Click '''Calculate'''.                         *
 ********************************************************/
 
/********************************************************
 * The file with a Service type                         *
 ********************************************************/
package server;
 
service MyServiceType
 
   // variables and constants can be here
   function calculate(myScores Int[] in) returns(Decimal(4, 2))
      numberOfScores, i, mySum Int;
      numberOfScores = myScores.getSize();
 
      for(i from 1 to numberOfScores)
         mySum = myScores[i] + mySum;
      end
 
      return(mySum/numberOfScores);
   end 
end
 
/********************************************************
 * The file with a Handler type                         *
 ********************************************************/
package client;
 
import server.MyServiceType;
import org.eclipse.edt.rui.widgets.GridLayout;
import org.eclipse.edt.rui.widgets.GridLayoutData;
import org.eclipse.edt.rui.widgets.TextField;
import org.eclipse.edt.rui.widgets.TextLabel;
 
import dojo.widgets.DojoButton;
import dojo.widgets.DojoTextField;
 
handler MyHandler type RUIhandler{initialUI =[ui], onConstructionFunction = start, 
                                  cssFile = "css/MyClientAppWithService.css", title = "MyHandler"}
 
   ui GridLayout{columns = 3, rows = 4, cellPadding = 4, children =[myResult, myButton, scores, codeLabel]};
 
   codeLabel TextLabel{layoutdata = new GridLayoutData{row = 2, column = 2}, text = "Numbers:"};                 
 
   scores TextField{layoutData = new GridLayoutData{row = 2, column = 3}};
 
   myButton DojoButton{layoutData = 
      new GridLayoutData{row = 4, column = 2}, text = "Calculate", onClick ::= ui_onClick};
 
   myResult DojoTextField{layoutData = new GridLayoutData{row = 4, column = 3}};
 
   function start()
 
   end
 
   function theExceptionHandler(exp AnyException in)
 
      SysLib.writeStdOut(exp.messageID + " " + exp.message);
 
      if(exp isa ServiceInvocationException)
         SysLib.writeStdOut((exp as ServiceInvocationException).detail1);
         SysLib.writeStdOut((exp as ServiceInvocationException).detail2);
         SysLib.writeStdOut((exp as ServiceInvocationException).detail3);
      end
   end
 
   function theCallBack(retResult decimal(4, 2) in)
      myResult.text = retResult;
   end
 
   function ui_onClick(event Event in)
 
      inputLength int = scores.text.length();
 
      myDelimiters string = ", ";
      myPosition int = 1;
      myToken string;
      myList int[];
 
      while(myPosition < inputLength)
         myToken = StringLib.getNextToken(scores.text, myPosition, myDelimiters);
 
            if(myToken != null)
               myList.appendElement(myToken as int);
            end
      end
 
      /************ Service access statements ***************************/
 
      myBinding IHttp? = Resources.getResource("binding:myBinding");
      call MyServiceType.calculate(myList) 
         using myBinding
         returning to theCallBack 
         onException theExceptionHandler;
 
      /*******************************************************************/
 
   end
end

Incidentally, you can retrieve the details from the HTTP response by adding a parameter of type IHTTP to the callback function:

   function theCallBack(retResult decimal(4, 2) in, myHttp IHTTP in)
      myResult.text = retResult;
 
      /* display the response in JSON format */
      SysLib.writeStdOut(myHttp.getResponse().body);
end

Accessing a third-party REST service

When you access a third-party REST service, the service-access code in the Rich UI handler is accessing a proxy function, which also must be generated to JavaScript.

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