Network Deployment (Distributed operating systems), v8.0 > Applications > Web services > Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF)
WSIF Overview
The Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF) provides a Java API for invoking web services, independent of the format of the service, or the transport protocol through which it is invoked.
WSIF provides the following features:
- An API that provides binding-independent access to any web service.
- A close relationship with WSDL, so it can invoke any service that you can describe in WSDL.
- A stubless and completely dynamic invocation of a web service.
- The capability to plug a new or updated implementation of a binding into WSIF at run time.
- The option to defer the choice of a binding until run time.
WSIF provides runtime support for web services, and for WSDL extensions and bindings, that were not known at build time. This capability is known as dynamic invocation. Using WSIF, a client application can choose dynamically the optimal binding to use for invoking Web service operations. For example, a web service might offer a SOAP binding, and also a local Java binding so that you can treat the local service implementation (a Java class) as a web service. If a client application is deployed in the same environment as the service, this client can use the local Java binding for the service. This provides more efficient communication between the client and the service by making direct Java calls, rather than indirect calls that use the SOAP binding.
WSIF provides this runtime support through the use of providers that link the WSIF service to the underlying implementation of the service. The providers support web services, WSDL extensions, and bindings that were not known at build time by using the WSDL description to access the target service.
WSIF is designed to work both in an unmanaged environment (running WSIF as a client) and inside a managed container. We can use the JNDI to find the WSIF service, or you can use the location described in the WSDL.
For more conceptual information about WSIF and WSDL, see the following topics:
WSIF supports IPv6, and Java API for XML-based Remote Procedure Calls (JAX-RPC) v1.1 for SOAP.
Related
WSIF architecture
WSIF and WSDL
WSIF usage scenarios
Goals of WSIF
Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF)
Use WSIF to invoke web services
Invoke a WSDL-based web service through the WSIF API
Link a WSIF service to the underlying implementation of the service
Run WSIF as a client
Interacting with the Java EE container in WAS
Use WSIF to bind a JNDI reference to a web service
Apache WSIF
Concept topic