Table of Contents
This document explains the XINS functionalities. It starts by explaining how to create and run a simple API and continue by explaining the more advanced features.
XINS is an open-source Web Services framework.
XINS supports POX-RPC, SOAP, XML-RPC and more. It consists mainly of an XML-based specification format and a Java-based implementation framework. From its specifications, XINS can generate HTML, WSDL, client-side code, server-side code, test forms and more.
This document uses the Windows file system. If you are installing XINS in a Unix operating system like Mac OS X, linux or Solaris, change all back slash characters ('\') with a forward slash character ('/') in the file names of this document.
The documentation provides some Javadoc links that only work in the HTML generated user guide.
XINS requires the following software:
Java Development Kit 1.4 or higher: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/.
If not done by the installation, you should set the
environment variable JAVA_HOME to the directory where
you have installed Java. Also add the
%JAVA_HOME%\bin directory to the
PATH environment variable. You can check the Java
version installed by executing java
-version.
XINS is also compatible with Java 1.3.1. If you want to compile your API using Java 1.3.1, proceed as follow:
Download Xalan.
Copy xalan.jar,
xercesImpl.jar and
xml-apis.jar to
%XINS_HOME%\lib.
Add -lib %XINS_HOME%\lib as argument
to the ant commands located in the
bin\xins.bat file.
If you would like to use the HTTPS functionality, then you require also a JSSE implementation.
XINS has also been tested with Java 5.0 and Java 6.0 .
Ant: http://ant.apache.org/, version 1.6.2 or higher.
You should set the environment variable
ANT_HOME to the directory where you have installed
Ant. Also add the %ANT_HOME%\bin directory to
the PATH environment variable. You can check the Ant
version installed by executing ant
-version.
If you're using the Ant distribution included with Eclipse,
you may need to copy xercesImpl-2.6.2.jar
in the
eclipse\plugins\org.apache.ant_1.6.5\lib
directory. Otherwise you may have an
putDocumentInCache error message.
If you're using the Ant distribution included with NetBeans and have putDocumentInCache error messages, you should change the Ant home location to Ant 1.7.0 or higher (in Tools -> Options -> Miscalleneous -> Ant.
Optional: A servlet container. For example: Tomcat or Jetty. Any J2EE server can also deploy web applications. For example: Glassfish, Orion, JBoss, WebSphere, WebLogic, Resin or JRun.
For the installation of the servlet container, please refer to the documentation of the downloaded product.
XINS contains it's own servlet container implementation for basic testing purposes only.
Optional: A version control system. For example CVS or Subversion.
This document will assume that you have installed Java, Ant.
XINS can be installed using the Windows installer or by
downloading the .tgz file and unzipping the file.
Both options are explained below.
Download xins-2.2.exe
and execute it. A new directory c:\Program
Files\xins is created.
If you choose to compile and run the demo, you can go to the
link provided in the README file, then click
on MyFunction and on the
MyComputer links in the examples section or use
the test form link provided on this page.
Download XINS 2.2.
Unpack the downloaded file (
xins-2.2.tgz) to a directory.
Set the environment variable XINS_HOME to the
xins directory.
Add the path %XINS_HOME%\bin to your
PATH environment variable
On Windows, the new environment variable will not be set until you have rebooted or logged on again. If you don't want to reboot your computer, you can set the variables with set XINS_HOME=c:\Program Files\xins and set PATH=%PATH%;%XINS_HOME%\bin in a DOS prompt.
You are now ready to create your first XINS project.
API names should be in lowercase. E.g. billing
(and not Billing).
Functions, types and result codes should use the hungarian naming
convention and start with an uppercase. E.g
CheckStatus, Customer and
NotFound.
Parameters, functions, types and result codes starting with an underscore ('_') are reserved for XINS.
Parameter names should start with a lowercase. E.g:
message and houseNumber.
The Java code used for the generated templates and in the examples has private variables starting with underscore ('_') and contains some comment for the CVS tags. For the rest the Sun Java code conventions and the Javadoc documentation style rules apply.