taSoapClient v3.2

What is taSoapClient?
Multi language
Entering and organizing data
Finding data
Invoking a request
Invoking a batch of requests
Debugging

What is taSoapClient ?

This application is a generic XML webservice client with which you can consume XML based webservices.
It is based on the Eve VM 1.42 ( http://www.ewesoft.com).

The program has following features:

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Multi language

The application is delivered in english and german, but is designed to support any number of languages. To translate the application into your language or to change the existing english / german texts, follow the instructions in the 'Custom Language Package' (taSoapClient-Custom.zip).

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Entering and organizing webservices

The data in the webservice definition file (*.ws) is organized in a tree and webservices and / or their requests can be moved along in the tree with the Cut and Paste functions.

Defining proxy settings

At the root node you can define the http proxy settings:

Adding a new webservice

When adding a new webservice, you'll need to enter following things:

Adding a new request

When adding a new request for a webservice, you'll need to enter following things:

Creating request files

At the beginning of the request file, you can specify the XML encoding. This encoding is used to read and update the request file but need not be the same encoding that is used to communicate with the webservice. For Windows systems (with native VM or Java VM) we recommend to use following definition: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>. For Linux systems we recommend <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>. If there is no XML encoding defined, ISO-8859-1 (=Windows1252, "ANSI") is being used.

Creating request files for SOAP webservices can be a pretty tricky thing because they must conform exactly to the WSDL of the webservice. We recommend that you use a SOAP tool like the free soapUI to create those XML files. Once you have the file, you must tell taSoapClient which are the input fields. You do this by putting ???+ into the content of the field. After this character sequence, you can put in a text that will then be shown in the GUI as the default text of the field. If a field is an input field, but should not be written back when updating the request file (e.g. for password fields) then use a minus, so ???- instead of ???+

Creating request files for REST webservices is pretty easy: All fields that must be passed are defined as XML elements and must all be childs of a root element. The name of the root element does not matter. If the request file contains an element relativeURL, this element will be appended to the REST base URL (see above). If you need to POST data, you can add a POSTdata element which contains only 1 child, the root of the post data.
Here's an example for the API of Pivotal Tracker:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<PivotalTracker>
  <relativeURL>/projects</relativeURL>
  <token>???-</token>
    <POSTdata>
      <story>
        <story_type>???+feature</story_type>
        <name>???-</name>
        <description>???-</description>
      </story>
    </POSTdata>
</PivotalTracker>

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Finding data

You can search for webserices / requests that contain the string you are searching for. The search is always case-insensitive and searches all text fields of all entries.
'Find' always searches from the root of the tree. 'Find next' continues the search from the last found entry (not from the currently selected entry).

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Invoking requests

In order to perform a webservice request, you must select a request and invoke it. The program will then dynamically build and show a GUI based on the defined request file. Enter all inputs and press OK. The program will then put your inputs into the request, send it to the webservice and display the response in a new tab on the screen. For SOAP webservices, also the request is shown in a tab on the screen.

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Invoking a batch of requests

If you need to invoke the same request several times with different data, you can automate this task by using the batch invoke function:

This feature depends on the type of license you purchased and might therefore not be available to you.

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Debugging

If you encounter problems when working with this application, you might want to activate the debug mode. This mode gathers data on certain operations and you can then view this data after the operation is done. The debug data might help you find out what is going wrong.
When the application starts, the debug mode is always off. The application does not remember the state of the debug mode.

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