SOAP parameter serialization

[rmarp]

Hi all,



I'm looking for some information on how Flash/Flex serializes
parameters to WebService operations. If a web service operations
takes a simple parameter like a string, I can just pass it in as
the argument to the Operation.send() method but what if the
parameter is a "complexType"? Do I need to create an xml node or
just an object with public properties, etc...?



Any info on this would be much appreciated.



Ryan

[aBill]

Hi



For complex type you can pass the parameter in object. for
example:

WSDL type definition

<complexType name="SOAPStruct">

<sequence>

<element name="varString" nillable="true"
type="xsd:string" />

<element name="varInt" type="xsd:int" />

<element name="varFloat" type="xsd:float" />

</sequence>

</complexType>





_service.echoStruct({varString:'The String', varInt:245,
varFloat:2134.123});

or pass it through from tag declarion: for example

<mx:operation name="echoStruct" result="onResult(event)"
fault="onFault(event)">

<mx:request format="object">

<inputStruct>

<varString>The String</varString>

<varInt>245</varInt>

<varFloat>2134.123</varFloat>

</inputStruct>

</mx:request>

</mx:operation>



and you can also construct it as xml, for example

<mx:request format="xml">

<ns1:doGoogleSearch xmlns:ns1="urn:GoogleSearch"
xmlns:xsi="
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<key
xsi:type="xsd:string">00000000000000000000000000000000</key>


<q
xsi:type="xsd:string">{ti_searchparm.text}</q>

<start xsi:type="xsd:int">0</start>

<maxResults xsi:type="xsd:int">10</maxResults>

<filter xsi:type="xsd:boolean">true</filter>

<restrict xsi:type="xsd:string" />

<safeSearch
xsi:type="xsd:boolean">false</safeSearch>

<lr xsi:type="xsd:string" />

<ie xsi:type="xsd:string">latin1</ie>

<oe xsi:type="xsd:string">latin1</oe>

</ns1:doGoogleSearch>

</mx:request>





Hope the above info help! Thanks!

William Chan

[rmarp]

William - Thank you, this is helpful. One other thing
though.. a few of the web service operations I need to call have a
parameter defined like this:



<complexType name="Account">

<sequence/>

<attribute name="Name" type="string" use="required"/>

<attribute name="Value" type="string" use="required"/>

</complexType>



Notice that the Name and Value items are attributes, not
sub-elements. If I create an object like:



var param:Object = {Name:"xxxx", Value:"yyyy"};



is there a way to have these properties encoded as attributes
as opposed to sub-elements?



Ryan

[aBill]

Ryan - you can just pass the object, flex does take care
where it is element or attribute



following is the sample(one of testcase we have)

<s:complexType name="Person">

<s:sequence>

<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="Age"
type="s:double" />

<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="ID"
type="s:float" />

</s:sequence>

<s:attribute name="Name" type="s:string" />

<s:attribute name="Male" type="s:boolean" />

</s:complexType>



var expected:Object = new Object();

expected.Name = "Bob Smith";

expected.Male = true;

expected.Age = 31;

expected.ID = 12345;

operation.send(expected);