1.17 Web Services

EDQ processes as configured in Director can be deployed as Web Services to provide easy integration with source systems for real time data auditing, cleansing and matching (for example, for real time duplicate prevention).

This allows you to ensure that data problems are prevented at the point of data entry by using an integrated data quality Web Service to check records as they are entered.

Creating a Web Service

Right-click on Web Services in the Project Browser, and select New Web Service.

Use the wizard to define the inbound and outbound interfaces of your Web Service. Once these interfaces are defined, you can then change a process to act as a Web Service by configuring the Reader to read from a real time provider (the inbound interface), and configuring the Writer to write to a real time consumer (the outbound interface). Note that the outbound interface is optional - for example, for Real time monitoring processes that check records as they are entered but do not issue responses.

Dealing with Multiple Records

For some Web Services, it is useful to consider multiple records as part of the same message. For example, when setting up a Web Service to match records in real time, in order to prevent duplicate records from being entered into systems, both the inbound and outbound interfaces of the Web Service should have the Multi-record? option ticked, so that a single message can be received with all candidate records, and a single message can be sent with the possible duplicate records and their match levels.

You can also set the Multi-record option differently on the inbound and outbound interfaces. For example, if matching a single inbound record against Reference Data sets managed by EDQ (such as when checking customer records against watchlists), the inbound interface may be single record, but the outbound interface may be multi-record, as the input record may match several lists.

Viewing Web Service Details

To copy the URL of the WSDL file for a Web Service, right-click on it, and select Copy WSDL URL to clipboard.

All the Web Services that are set up on an EDQ server can be viewed from a single page so that integrators can easily access the WSDL files required to use them.

To see all the Web Services on a server:

1. Go to the EDQ Launchpad.

2. Click on Web Services.

3. Log on with your normal user name and password.

From this page, you can see the Service URLs of the Web Services, view the generated WSDL files for its available operations (provider and consumer), and (if the service is running) test the Web Service using an automatically generated GUI.

The (test) option launches a separate Java application for testing the Web Services on a server. This includes an option to test the response time of the Web Service.

Note:

If you are a user with restricted project access, you will only see, and will only be able to test, the Web Services for the projects to which you have access.

Setting up the Process for a Web Service

Once a Web Service has been defined, you can configure the Reader of a process to read messages from its inbound interface (real time provider), and (optionally) you can configure the Writer of a process to issue a response by connecting it to the outbound interface (real time consumer).

To switch easily between Batch and Real time processing (for example to switch to Batch mode in order to test a process), it is useful to configure the process to read its data from a Data Interface, and use Data Interface Mappings to switch between a Staged Data source (such as a snapshot) and a Real time provider (such as a Web Service).

Another useful mechanism when designing a real time process, and switching between Batch and Real time execution in order to test it, is to add two writers to the process - one issuing the real time response, and one writing an audit trail of both the inbound record and the response to a staged data table. You can then configure two different Jobs - one job with the real time writer enabled and the staged data writer disabled, and another job with the staged data writer enabled and the real time writer disabled. See Execution Options for more information. More

The process linked to a Web Service will be either a Real time response process (accepting inbound messages and issuing a real time response), or a Real time monitoring process (checking records as they are added but not issuing a response). As the process is likely to run continuously, it is advisable to run it in Interval mode so that it writes results on a periodic basis.

Testing Web Services

A Java application is accessible from the EDQ Launchpad that allows you to test a running Web Service before any integration work is done. To access the application, click on the (test) option when viewing the Web Services from the Launchpad. You will need to log in again using a valid EDQ user name and password.

The Web Service you selected on the Launchpad will be selected by default, though you can select different services to test using the Project and Web Service drop downs in the Setup section at the top.

The Get WSDL button retrieves the latest WSDL file, if the Web Service has been changed. This allows you to edit the Web Service definition without having to leave the test application.

The remainder of the screen shows In and Out sections. Here you can set up a request, send it to a Web Service, and see the response.

Note that the Response time of the service to respond to the request is measured in milliseconds.

If required, you can send the request many times and chart the average timings of the responses. To do this, click on the Timing test... button and enter the number of times you want to send the request, and (if required) an interval in milliseconds between sending each request. Then click Run to send the requests. The Status section updates as the requests are sent.

You can then click on the Chart link to generate a chart showing a chart of the responses, so that you can see when the slowest and fastest responses happened:

Adding Records

For a Web Service that expects multiple records - that is, the Web Service was created with the Multi Record? option ticked (for example, a Web Service to identify matching records from a set of candidates) - you can use the Add Record button to add as many records as you require before sending the request. The Add Record button is disabled when a Web Service that expects a single record is selected.

Alternative Integration Methods (JMS)

EDQ also supports integration with its real time capabilities via JMS (Java Messaging Service). In this case, the real time providers and consumers must be set up manually.