How Web Services Query the Virtual DataPort Server¶
When a Web service receives a request, it executes a SQL statement
(SELECT
, INSERT
, UPDATE
, etc.). To do this, it behaves as
any other Virtual DataPort client: it connects to Virtual DataPort with
certain credentials and executes a query equivalent to the request
received. This query may fail if the user associated to these
credentials is not granted the appropriate privileges.
SOAP Web services: when you deploy a view as a SOAP Web service, by default the service has four operations:
getXXX
: when invoked, the services executes aSELECT
statement.insertXXX
: when invoked, the service executes anINSERT
statement.updateXXX
: when invoked, the service executes anUPDATE
statement.deleteXXX
: when invoked, the service executes aDELETE
statement.
You can delete any of these operations if you do not want any client to perform them.
REST Web services: as opposed to SOAP Web services, REST Web services publish views and not operations over view. Therefore, when you publish a view, you are allowing external clients to perform the following operations on them:
SELECT
statements: when the service receivesGET
requests.INSERT
statements: when the service receivesPOST
requestsUPDATE
statements: when the service receivesPUT
requests.DELETE
statements: when the services receivesDELETE
requests.
The credentials used by the Web service to connect to Virtual DataPort depend on the authentication method selected. They fall into two categories (see the last two columns of the table Authentication methods support by SOAP and REST Web services):
“Uses the credentials of the Web service”: during the deployment of the Web service, the administrator selects a user, whose credentials will be used by the Web service to execute all the queries. In order for these queries to succeed, the selected user needs to have the right privileges to perform these queries.
The section Web Service Container Status Table will explain how the administrator selects a user for the service.
“Uses the Credentials of the Web Service’s Clients”: in order for these queries to succeed, the users that invoke the Web service need to have the right privileges to perform the queries that the service will execute on their behalf.
For example, if the user
bruce
invokes an operation of the service, the service connects to Virtual DataPort with the credentials provided bybruce
in his request. The query may or may not be executed depending on the privileges assigned tobruce
. If later, the userscott
invokes the same operation of the service, the service will connect to Virtual DataPort with the credentials provided byscott
.
A Web service is a JEE web application, which contains a web.xml
file. When you deploy a Web service or generate its WAR, and the service
uses one of the authentication methods of the column “Uses the
credentials of the Web service”, the user name and the encrypted
password of the user selected during the deployment of the Web service
are stored in the web.xml
file. At runtime, the service uses these
credentials to connect to Virtual DataPort and execute queries.
For the services that use one of these types of authentication, if you change the password of the user selected to deploy the Web service, you have to redeploy the Web service. Otherwise, all the invocations to this service will fail because the password send by the service will not be correct.