Using Web Service Explorer to test a Web service

Using Web Service Explorer to test a Web service

By Kathy Chan June 23, 2008

Introduction

This document is one of a series of tutorials to demonstrate the use of the Web Services tools in the Web Tools Platform Project using a WTP drivers (it works with WTP 1.5.x, WTP 2.0.x, 3.0.x, and WTP 3.2).

This tutorial shows how to use the Web Service Explorer to test a Web service via native WSDL and SOAP. It demonstrates how to use the Web Services Explorer to invoke operations on a Web service named " Romulan Numbers XLII " as available from XMethods on the internet.

The only prerequisite is that you be connected to the internet. If you are connected via a firewall, you can use the Internet preferences page (choose Preferences -> Internet from the main menu). Otherwise, you can begin with a completely fresh workspace and no installed servers.

Using the Web Services Explorer to test a Web service

Launch the Eclipse WTP workbench. From the main menu bar, select Run -> Launch the Web Services Explorer. This will take a few moments the first time while Eclipse's internal Tomcat server starts up and loads the Web Services Explorer application. After the Web Browser view opens, maximize it. Result: In the Web Service Explorer's toolbar (top-right), click on the WSDL Page icon, Click on the WSDL Main icon. Result: In the WSDL URL field, enter the URL http://www.ebob42.com/cgi-bin/Romulan.exe/wsdl/IRoman , then click on Go . Result: Under Operations in the right hand pane, click on IntToRoman. Result: In the Int int entry field, enter 9, then click on Go . In the Status pane, you should see an answer like this: return (String) IX

A key point of the scenario above is that no code was generated and no servers were required in order to invoke operations on the WSDL