Customization of generated WSDL using DFHLS2WS

Resolving The Problem

You can now specify the version of WSDL to use (WSDL 1.1 or WSDL 2.0, or both), the version of SOAP to use (SOAP 1.1, SOAP 1.2 or both), the full URI of the Web service (including the transport protocol to be used), and the namespace of the request and response schemas.

Specify the following DFHLS2WS input parameters if you want to customize the generated WSDL:

• WSDL_1.1 and WSDL_2.0
  
  These parameters control the version of WSDL to generate. If you specify both parameters then DFHLS2WS will generate two different WSDL documents that expose the same Web service, one in WSDL 1.1 syntax and the other in WSDL 2.0 syntax.
  
  
• SOAPVER=1.1 ¦ 1.2 ¦ ALL
  
  This parameter controls the version of SOAP to specify in the generated WSDL document. If you do not specify this parameter then DFHLS2WS will continue to generate SOAP 1.1 Bindings and includes comments indicating how to change the WSDL if SOAP 1.2 is required. If this parameter is set then no such comments are included in the generated WSDL. If 'ALL' is specified then two different but compatible Bindings are included in the WSDL, one for SOAP 1.1 and the other for SOAP 1.2.
  
  
• URI
  
  This parameter existed in the CICS TS V3.1 version of DFHLS2WS, but it could only be used to specify the relative part of the URI that would be used in the URIMAP resource created by CICS during a PIPELINE SCAN operation. The generated WSDL document included comments indicating how this URI should be edited prior to publication and distribution of the document.
  
  Under the CICS TS V3.2, or later, version of DFHLS2WS an absolute URI can be specified. This entire URI is then included in the generated WSDL document thereby avoiding the requirement for editing the generated document.
  
  
• REQUEST-NAMESPACE and RESPONSE-NAMESPACE
  
  These two parameters were originally introduced to CICS TS V3.1 in APAR PK34972. They allow customization of the XML namespace used for the request and response SOAP messages.
  
  

If you use IBM Rational Developer for System z (RDz) to generate WSBind files then these parameters might be available to you, even if you only have a CICS TS V3.1 runtime. The Web services assistants from CICS TS V3.2, and later, can be used to generate artifacts that are compatible with CICS TS V3.1. RDz includes a newer version of the Web services assistants and you can therefore make use of these new customization parameters when generating WSDL documents.

The Web services assistants have a Java™ based application programming interface (API) that allows them to be integrated into third party applications. This API is used by RDz. Under CICS TS V3.2 the API was enhanced to allow third party agents to be attached to DFHLS2WS, these agents can assist in the mapping process. The agent can programmatically indicate that particular fields in the language structure are to be omitted from the SOAP interface. The API can also be used to alter the names of the fields as they appear in the generated WSDL rather than using the same name as was used in the original language structure.

RDz makes use of this API. The user can indicate with the RDz GUI which individual fields within the input language structure should be exposed with SOAP. The ability to omit FILLER fields from the SOAP interface is a common reason for editing the generated WSDL and reprocessing the WSDL using DFHWS2LS. Similarly the user can indicate that certain fields are only to be used for input or are only used for output. The use of RDz to Web service enable applications for CICS therefore offers significant advantages over the use of DFHLS2WS on its own and significantly reduces the requirement for hand editing of the generated WSDL documents.