REST APIs and SOAP web services
Table of contents
OutSystems simplifies the task of consuming and exposing functionality as standard REST APIs or SOAP web services without any hand-coding. More complex enterprise integration scenarios that require using MQSeries, TIBCO, BizTalk and other middleware ESBs are also supported by web services.
Explore our online training to learn more about OutSystems and REST APIs and SOAP web services.
REST
Determined to make the integration with REST APIs as simple as possible, OutSystems has introduced an entirely new way to automate the consumption of a REST API.
There is no contract in REST APIs, just a set of examples usually present in the provider documentation. Instead of fighting this fact, we embraced it. Simply typing the address for the REST API and using the JSON examples will enable OutSystems to automatically discover the underlying structure present. It then creates an interface that can be dragged around in the visual logic as if it were any other piece of business logic or web service. Users just need to fill in the parameters and start using the API.
OutSystems creates all the required structure to support impact and change analysis throughout the app. If the API changes, everything is updated, automatically healed and checked for impact.
To expose REST services, define the REST API with the OutSystems visual language and click to publish. The result is a simple, fast and secure JSON-based REST API.
SOAP
Consuming SOAP web services involves providing the URL in exactly the same way as it would be typed into a web browser. OutSystems will fetch the WSDL and create all the necessary data structures for the web service methods to be used visually.
Exposing SOAP web services is done by exposing the methods. OutSystems will automatically create the WSDL and URL that can be consumed by other applications.
In either case, parsing XML is avoided.