Programmatic Interfaces to XMethods

In addition to the browser interface, XMethods publishes a number of programmatic interfaces.   The following table provides a catalog of these interfaces.  

  

Interface	URL
XMethods SOAP Interfaces    details	http://www.xmethods.net/interfaces/query.wsdl
XMethods UDDI Private Registry details	Inquiry:   http://uddi.xmethods.net/inquire Publication:   https://uddi.xmethods.net/publish
WS-Inspection document  details	http://www.xmethods.net/inspection.wsil
DISCO document details	http://www.xmethods.net/default.disco
RSS feed details	http://www.xmethods.net/interfaces/rss

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XMethods SOAP Interfaces

We have updated the SOAP RPC  interface to XMethods.  The XMethods SOAP Query Service  allows the user to obtain service listings and detailed service information through a convenient SOAP RPC interface. 

The following operations are defined in the interface.   Method signatures are used as a convenient shorthand. For a more rigorous examination , consult the WSDL file at http://www.xmethods.net/wsdl/query.wsdl

 SOAP Binding Details
As always, the following details are specified in the WSDL file, but for your convenience they are listed here.  

 

SOAPAction	For this service, an empty SOAPAction is specified. In reality, any SOAPAction value may be passed in; the service ignores it.
Method Namespace	http://www.xmethods.net/interfaces/query

Operations

Operation Signature	Description
IDNamePair[] getServiceNames()	Returns a lightweight array of ID/Name structures
IDNamePair[] getServiceNamesByPublisher(  String publisherID  )	Similar to getServiceNames() but returns only those services belonging to a specific publisher (specified by their XMethods ID)
ServiceSummary[] getAllServiceSummaries( )	Returns an array of ServiceSummary structures for all active services listed at XMethods   A ServiceSummary structure provides  a limited set of important fields for a service.
ServiceSummary[] getServiceSummariesByPublisher( String  publisherID )	Similar to getAllServiceSummaries() but returns only those services belonging to a specific publisher (specified by their XMethods ID)
ServiceDetail getServiceDetail(String id)	Returns a ServiceDetail structure for a given ID.  The ServiceDetail structure provides all full set of fields associated with a service.

Data Structures

There are 3 simple data structures used in the service. They are rigorously defined in the types section of the WSDL file.

IDNamePair is a very simple structure that groups an ID with a name:

{    
    String    id ,
    String    name 
}

ServiceSummary  is a collection of basic fields that is used as for "compact" descriptions of a service:

{
    String name;
    String id;   
    String shortDescription;
    String wsdlURL;   
    String publisherID;
}

ServiceDetail is a more complete collection of fields used for a verbose description of a service:  The tmodelID and uuid fields arereserved for future use.

{
    String name;
    String id;
    String shortDescription;
    String description;
    String implementationID;
    String email;
    String wsdlURL;
    String infoURL;
    String discussionURL;
    String notes;                                    
    String tmodelID;     
    String publisherID;
    String uuid;                  
}

 

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WS-Inspection 1.0 Document

WS-Inspection is a specification from Microsoft and IBM for an XML-based mechanism for service discovery and inspection.  It is intended to supercede such formats as Microsoft's DISCO, and is meant to be complementary to other mechanisms such as UDDI.  We provide a simple WS-Inspection document that describes the active services currently registered at XMethods .  

The URL is : http://www.xmethods.net/inspection.wsil

By default, all active services are displayed. If you want to filter it to the services published by a specific publisher, append a "publisherid=" parameter to the URL, like this:

http://www.xmethods.net/inspection.wsil?publisherid=xmethods.net

where the publisher ID is the XMethods ID for the organization or individual.

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DISCO Document

DISCO is the discovery specification that was written by Microsoft.   The Microsoft tools, such as Visual Studio .NET and the .NET framework, are able to parse DISCO files to discover what services are hosted at a location.  We provide a simple DISCO document that describes the active services currently registered at XMethods.

The URL is : http://www.xmethods.net/default.disco

By default, all active services are displayed. If you want to filter it to the services published by a specific publisher, append a "publisherid=" parameter to the URL, like this:

http://www.xmethods.net/default.disco?publisherid=xmethods.net

where the publisher ID is the XMethods ID for the organization or individual.

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RSS 0.91 Feed

XMethods now has an RSS 0.91 feed that provides titles and links for the last 10 services published.  

The URL is: http://www.xmethods.net/interfaces/rss