Web Services

Virtual DataPort can publish views as web services, making it easy for other applications to retrieve data from them. There are two types of web services:

  • SOAP web service. It publishes a list of operations to perform over views, which are characterized by a name, a list of input parameters and a return value. There is an operation to query a view and, if the view supports updates, there may be operations to insert, delete or update data too. The web service can include operations on more than one view.

  • REST web service. It publishes a list of views as resources. If there are associations among them, they can also be published. To query the view, you need to launch an HTTP request on the corresponding resource. The HTTP method you use in your request determines the action performed on the view: GET retrieves data, POST inserts it, UPDATE modifies it and DELETE removes it.

See also

For further information on published web services you can check the Virtual DataPort Administration Guide.

In addition to views, the Data Catalog allows you to discover the web services published by Virtual DataPort. If you find a web service of your interest while browsing or searching, click its name. You will see all the available information about it, considering both the metadata retrieved from Virtual DataPort and the metadata added by other users of the Data Catalog.

The information about a web service is organized in the following tabs:

  • Summary. The summary tab shows the basic information of the web service: database, categories, description, etc.

  • Schema. In the schema tab you can find, for each operation or resource, the list of web service fields with their types and descriptions.

  • Query. The query tab has a wizard to help you build and launch queries on a REST web service.

  • Usage. The usage tab gives information about the requests that Virtual DataPort received on the web service.

An administrator of the Data Catalog can add custom properties to the web service to improve the information you have about it. According to the configuration, they will appear inside a new section of the Summary tab or in a new tab.