ColdFusion%20MX%20and%20Web%20Services

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ColdFusion MX and Web Services

• From Creation and Consumption

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Introduction Neil Ross

• Senior Application Architect with Automation
  Creations in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
  neil_at_aciwebs.com / http//www.aciwebs.comFreela
  nce application development as Codesweeper.
  neil_at_codesweeper.com / http//www.codesweeper.com
  
• Certifications ColdFusion Developer and
  ColdFusion Instructor
• Author Inside ColdFusion MXhttp//www.insidecold
  fusionmx.com as well as online and CFDJ articles
• Speaker ColdFusion DevCon 2000 in DC, CFUGs,
  MMUGs, CFEurope 2003
• Founder and former manager of Central Penn
  CFUGCurrently manager and founder of Southwest
  Virginia MMUG

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Overview

• Explain Web Services
• Examine how to create your own web services with
  ColdFusion MX
• Examine how to consume an existing web service in
  ColdFusion MX
• Examine how to publish your web services for
  consumption by the world

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What are Web Services?

• Web services encapsulate existing business
  processes for publishing to the web
• A Web Service is a URL-addressable software
  resource that perform one or more functions
• Web Services communicate using standard protocol
  known as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

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Characteristics

• A web service is accessible over the web
• Web services communicate using platform-independen
  t and language-neural web protocols
• A web service provide an interface to be called
  by other programs
• A web service can be registered and located
  through a web service registry

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What would you use them for?

• Expose existing resources to the web
• Develop new applications from web services
• Separate business logic from UI components
• Bundle common functionality across web services
• Provide Security (Authentication, Authorization)
• Provide consistency among services

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Common Web Services

• Examples of web services include the following
• User authentication and authorization
• Credit card validation
• Stock quotes
• E-commerce
• News and information syndication

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What do they look like?
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Parts of a Web Service

• Web services consist of the following basic
  components
• Publishers create and provide application
• Brokers maintain a registry of service
  providers
• Consumers web pages that access and use the
  remote web service

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Creating ColdFusion Components

• ColdFusion components are the gateway to web
  services in ColdFusion MX
• Write a bunch of code thats really complicated
  to write the XML that comprises your WSDL
  document??? NO!!!
• First step is to create a ColdFusion Component
  and its very very easy to do

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CFC Code view
Using code view in Dreamweaver MX, select Filegt
Newgt, then select Dynamic Page from the Category
menu and ColdFusion Component from the Dynamic
Page menu

• lt!--- creating a ColdFusion component in code
  view ---gt
• ltcfcomponentgt
• ltcffunction name"myFunction" access"public"
  returntype"string"gt
• ltcfargument name"myArgument" type"string"
  required"true"gt
• ltcfset myResult"foo"gt
• ltcfreturn myResultgt
• lt/cffunctiongt
• lt/cfcomponentgt

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CFC wizard view
Select the button on the component tab within
the Application panel in DWMX
Fill out information requested within the Create
Component window.
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View and Test your CFC

• Of course, you dont want to assume that your CFC
  works properly without proper testing
• From the components tab in the Application panel,
  expand the component, then select the function to
  call
• Drag and drop the selected component function
  into your CFML template

lt!--- invoke the ColdFusion component
---gt ltcfinvoke component"cdsettlement.act.users"
method"authenticate_user"
returnvariable"authenticate_userRet"gt
ltcfinvokeargument name"username"
value"enter_value_here"/gt
ltcfinvokeargument name"password"
value"enter_value_here"/gt lt/cfinvokegt
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Creating the Web Service

• Select the Components in the Application Panel
• Select Web Services from the select menu

• Type in the URL of the WSDL file or the CFC with
  ?WSDL appended
• Thats it click OK and it will be added to your
  list of available web services

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Consuming Web Services

• Connecting programmatically to a Web service is
  known as consuming it.
• First find the web service that you want to
  connect to
• Write a bunch of code thats really complicated
  so that you can connect to the web service but
  only if you know everything about the web service
  and its in/out parameters ???
• NO!!!
  

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Consuming Web Services

• Select the Components in the Application Panel
• Select Web Services from the select menu

• Drag and drop the web services function into the
  code editor

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Web Services in the Real World

• Currency exchange rates and conversion

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Web Services in the Real World

• Currency exchange rates and conversion code

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Finding Web Services

• Web services exist in UDDI registries
• UDDI Universal Description, Discovery and
  Integration

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Finding Web Services

• Microsoft UDDI Business Registry
• IBM Web Services and UDDI
• Xmethods

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Conclusion

• Web Services dont have to be a mystery
• CFMX allows for the easiest implementation of Web
  Services
• Dreamweaver MX and ColdFusion MX for web services
  are the shizzle, fo sheezy!
• For more information, contact me
  atneil_at_aciwebs.com