↑
Main Page

Using the SOAP methods

Mozilla provides a very large amount of SOAP functionality, but because this is an older API, only the

most common usage is discussed here.

The basis of Mozilla’s SOAP functionality is the

SOAPCall

object. This object embodies the entire Web

service request and response. The

SOAPCall

object is created just like any other object:

var oSoapCall = new SOAPCall();

The next step is to set the location of the Web service by assigning it to the

SOAPCall

object’s

transportURI

property:

oSoapCall.transportURI = “http://address_of_service”;

This address is

not

the address of the WSDL, as it is in Internet Explorer. Instead, this is the actual URL

for the Web service itself (as defined in the WSDL element

<soap:address location=”http://

address_of_service” />

element).

After setting the location of the service, you create an array to handle the SOAP parameters. This is just a

regular array filled with

SOAPParameter

objects. The

SOAPParameter

constructor takes two arguments:

the value of the parameter, and the name (in that order). The array can contain any number of parame-

ters and is created like this:

var arrParams = new Array;

arrParams[0] = new SOAPParameter(“value”, “name”);

Next you create the

SOAPCall

object’s

encode()

method on the array, which encodes the parameters

for proper transmission. For this method, you need to know the name of the operation and the target

namespace:

oSOAPCall.encode(0, “operation_name”, “target_namespace”, 0, null,

arrParams.length, arrParams);

The arguments are:

The version of SOAP used:

0 for version 1.1

1 for version 1.2

65535 if the version is unknown

Note that you cannot assume that users have their browsers set up to allow the

UniversalBrowserRead privilege. If you plan on using this method of Web service

invocation, you must create a signed script (explained more fully in Chapter 19,

“Deployment Issues”). Also note that this is Mozilla-specific code that does not run

properly in IE, so it is important to do a browser detect before requesting a signature

for your script.

518

Chapter 17

20_579088 ch17.qxd 3/28/05 11:42 AM Page 518