VB.Net Web Services?

[Suziecorbett]

Hi There,

I apologise if I am posting this in the wrong area.

My problem is - I have a project to complete which will allow our
database to intigrate with another company's database via web services
using WSDL, SOAP and XML. All my coding experience is in VB6. I have
some XML Knowledge.

I have been trying to get started on this for two days now but still
can't seem to get the infrastructure required clear in my head. Can
anyone direct me to a good online location for explaining the basics -
or an online training course?

Really I just need a set of step of what is required. I think it will
need to be done in VB.net. I will need to have our side of the
application sitting on a server? Will an Apache server work ok with
Windows XP pro or will I need to install a server OS? This will then
in turn create the XML file containing the data we wish to send to the
external company and wrap it in a SOAP envelope. SOAP will then send
this information from our server to theirs - where another app will be
sitting "listening" for SOAP message? Will VB.net will tell the App to
wait for a response before sending the second phase?? I am just trying
to get this clear in my head and I seem to be getting nowhere!

Any help or direction would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks,
Suzie

 

[John Bailo]

This will then
in turn create the XML file containing the data we wish to send to the
external company and wrap it in a SOAP envelope. SOAP will then send
this information from our server to theirs - where another app will be
sitting "listening" for SOAP message?

It sounds like you want to write a VB.NET client "consumer" of a web
service sitting on the your client's machine. The consumer will
execute a web method on their machine, and you will get a response in
your client.

 

[John Timney \(MVP\)]

It really is normally quite easy. You need IIS, asp.net 2.0 and a copy of
vs.net. I do though think you need to do some reading on web services and
get a simple request / response example working on a local IIS server. The
principle for a remote server is normally no different.

You wish to consume a remote webservice. If they publish their WSDL then it
should be relatively easy and it shouldn't matter what remote web server
they use as long as they are following the WSDL standards. Without getting
a better understanding though of doing it locally to see how a proxy is
generated from a WSDL and the method stubs it creates consumed as local
methods, you'll struggle.

Some good example around.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetws/chapter/ch02.html


Regards

John Timney (MVP)
http://www.johntimney.com
http://www.johntimney.com/blog