The Oracle Commerce Platform permits external Java clients to access Nucleus methods by exposing them as Web Services. Many such Web Services are included with the Oracle Commerce Platform, as are tools for creating custom Web Services. For a list of these Web Services, see Web Services. Java clients can execute those Web Services through calls that are translated into XML wrapped in SOAP, transmitted to the Oracle Commerce Platform, and routed to the Nucleus method itself. Other Oracle Commerce Platform resources, such as JMS messages and RepositoryItems, can also be exposed as Web Services.

The Oracle Commerce Platform implementation of Web Services follows the standard Web Service guidelines outlined by JAX-RPC 1.0 and SOAP 1.1 specifications. You may use Apache Axis 1.4 to create your Web Service calls, and this section includes code examples that assume you are using Axis.

This section aims to inform you how to call Web Services from an Axis client. Rather than provide a broad discussion on how to use Axis, this section describes Oracle Commerce Platform-specific features and processes that you need to be familiar with. Please see the Axis documentation for comprehensive instructions.

To access a Web Service, you need to be familiar with the following topics: