Web service components and sequence of control

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.

  1. On the client side:
    1. A client application (provided by the user) issues a request for a Web service.
    2. 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.
    3. The client-side development infrastructure forwards the request to a URL defined as the Web service's endpoint.
  2. The network transmits the request to the Web service endpoint using HTTP or HTTPS.
  3. On the server side:
    1. The generic Web services API receives and decodes the request.
    2. 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.
    3. The returned data is wrapped in a SOAP response envelope.
  4. The network transmits the response to the client-side environment using HTTP or HTTPS.
  5. Back on the client side:
    1. The client-side development infrastructure unwraps the SOAP response envelope.
    2. The proxy client extracts the data from the SOAP response and passes it to the client application.
    3. The client application processes the returned data as necessary.

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