A number of client-side and server-side components participate
in the sequence of control that represents a Web service request and response.
A typical sequence of control is as follows.
- On the client side:
- A client application (provided by the user) issues a request for a Web
service.
- A proxy client (also provided by the user, but which can be automatically
generated using client-side utilities) wraps the service request in a SOAP
request envelope.
- The client-side development infrastructure forwards the request to a URL
defined as the Web service's endpoint.
- The network transmits the request to the Web service endpoint using HTTP
or HTTPS.
- On the server side:
- The generic Web services API receives and decodes the request.
- The request is either handled directly by the generic Business Flow Manager
or Human Task Manager component, or forwarded to the specified business process
or human task.
- The returned data is wrapped in a SOAP response envelope.
- The network transmits the response to the client-side environment
using HTTP or HTTPS.
- Back on the client side:
- The client-side development infrastructure unwraps the SOAP response envelope.
- The proxy client extracts the data from the SOAP response and passes it
to the client application.
- The client application processes the returned data as necessary.