Web Service to connect to an API and get the response back from the API

Question

This is a general Programming question I'm new to Java Web services programming using Apache Axis and JAX-RPC.

We need to build 2 components,a App engine (Shopping cart, Payment Gateway integration etc..) and a UI Control Panel over an existing API. The API understands only XML.How we must communicate with the API?

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We have been asked to write a Web Service to establish the communication. Please provide the steps and a Code example/snippet on how to connect to an existing API through a Webservice and get the response back from the API to the calling Webservice.

John,I hope I have been able to explain my query.If you have ideas on how to communicate with the API to get the desired result to the user,Please let us know. We have just started our careers in technology a year back post our graduation and this project is our very first Java EE project.

Answer 1

You can either develop SOAP, RPC or REST style webservices. Without knowing the problem domain, it is difficult to recommend which one is suitable for you.

If you are just talking about a registration service, the REST style might be the easiest and appropriate one for you. If you don't know what REST, this article might help you. You can learn some good and bad practices from here. Chooing the right web framework will make your job a lot easier while developing RESTful services. So you might want to look at something like Grails.

Looks like you have already heard of Apache axis. There are nice examples in there on how to build and consume SOAP services.

So decide what exactly you are trying to build, choose the right protocol, choose the right tool and then you will learn as you go.