Managing Web Source Modules
Web Source Modules act as a reference to one or multiple external web services. A module can contain one or many Web Source Operations which are the references to a concrete external web service.
- About Web Source Modules
- Creating a Web Source Module
- Editing or Deleting a Web Source Module
- Copying a Web Source Module
- Viewing Credential Utilization
- Viewing Web Service Module History
Parent topic: Managing Application Data
About Web Source Modules
How Web Sources Differ from Web Service References
Web Source Modules enable developers to access to Representational State Transfer (REST) services or generic JSON data feeds in applications applications and use the data in Application Express components such as reports, interactive reports, and interactive grids. Unlike existing Web Service References, a Web Source Module contains metadata about the Web service which can be used by Application Express Components or PL/SQL processes to invoke the service and to process the responses.
Web Source Modules contain multiple operators that differ depending upon the Web service target. For a REST services, an operation is a specific service handler (such as, GET
, PUT
, POST
, or DELETE
). Developers assign Operation a Database Action such as Fetch Multiple Rows
, Fetch Single Row
, Insert Row
, Update Row
, and Delete Row
. However, you can assign each Database Operation only once to a Web Source Operation.
Integration with Application Express Components
Oracle Application Express provides direct integration of Web Source Modules classic reports, interactive reports, CSS Calendar, and JET Charts.
About Remote Servers
Oracle Application Express splits the endpoint URL of a Web Service into two parts. The server-specific part is stored as a separate entity called the Remote Server. You can reuse a Remote Server with multiple Web Source Modules if it uses the same server, port and URL Path Prefix (context root).
If you change the attributes of a Remote Server, the change impacts all Web Source Modules using the Remote Server. Remote Servers make it easy to move a collection of Web Source Modules. For example, you can move from test system to a production system by changing the URL within the Remote Server object.
About Authentication and Credentials
Web Source Modules support both Basic Authentication and the OAuth Client Credentials flow. Authentication credentials can be specified at the Remote Server-level for all Web Source Modules using the Remote Server). If credentials are set at the Web Source Module-level, that setting supersedes credentials stored at the Remote Server level.
A Credential denotes the Authentication method, a Client ID (or user name) and a Client Secret (or password). Credentials are stored as a named entity within Shared Components and can be re-used across multiple Web Source Modules or Remote Servers.
See Also:
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules
Creating a Web Source Module
To create a Web Source Module:
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules
Editing or Deleting a Web Source Module
To edit a Web Source Module:
- Navigate to the Web Service Modules page:
- On the Workspace home page, click App Builder.
- Select an application.
- On the Application home page, click Shared Components in the center of the page.
- Under Data Sources, select Web Source Modules.
- On the Web Source Modules page, click Module Name.
- To delete the Web Service Module, click Delete. Otherwise, edit the attributes.
- Under Web Source Module:
- Under Data Profile:
- Subscription lists Web Source Modules that subscribe to this module.
- Under Operations:
- Authentication Required - Choose stored Credentials for Authentication.
- Under Module Parameters:
- Under Advanced attributes, configure thes HTTP Transfer Timeout or add Comments.
- HTTP Transfer Timeout - Specify a timeout value here. When an HTTP request for this web source value exceeds the timeout value, the end user will see an error message. This is to prevent non-responding pages due to an unresponsive web service.
- Comments - Enter Comments or notes.
- To save your changes, click Apply Changes.
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules
Copying a Web Source Module
To copy a Web Source Module:
- Navigate to the Web Service Modules page:
- On the Workspace home page, click App Builder.
- Select an application.
- On the Application home page, click Shared Components in the center of the page.
- Under Data Sources, select Web Source Modules.
- On the Web Source Modules page, click Copy.
- On Copy Web Source Module:
- Copy Web Source Module - Select an existing Web Source Module.
- New Web Source Module Name - Enter a new name.
- Click Copy.
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules
Viewing Credential Utilization
To view Web Source Modules utilization:
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules
Viewing Web Service Module History
To view recent modifications to Web Source Modules:
Parent topic: Managing Web Source Modules