Endpoint listeners and inbound ports: Entry points to the service integration bus
An endpoint listener is a web service-enabled entry point to one or more service integration buses. An endpoint listener carries requests and responses between web service clients and buses.
An endpoint listener is the point (address) at which incoming SOAP messages for a web service are received by a service integration bus. Each endpoint listener supports a particular binding. Endpoint listeners are supplied with WebSphere Application Server for the following bindings:
- SOAP over HTTP.
- SOAP over JMS.
By using wsadmin.sh, we can also create an endpoint listener configuration for our own endpoint listener, rather than for one of the listeners supplied with WebSphere Application Server.
A request arrives at an endpoint listener. It is passed to an inbound port, at which point security and JAX-RPC handler lists can be applied, then sent on to the service destination. Responses follow the same path in reverse.
The endpoint listener acts as the ultimate receiver of a SOAP message. The resulting messages that pass across the service integration bus are not then SOAP messages, rather just the data and context that resulted from receiving the SOAP message.
We can set up separate endpoint listeners for (for example) requests from the internal users and requests from your external users. Each endpoint listener is associated with a specific server or cluster, a specific set of service integration buses and (through inbound ports) a specific set of web services. By restricting access to an endpoint listener, we can give different user groups access to different services. For example:
- To give users inside the organization access to the full range of internal and external services, we can make those services available through one endpoint listener.
- To give users outside your organization access to those internal services that you choose to publish externally, we can make those services also available through another endpoint listener.