Web Services Framework Overview

What is the Web Services Framework?

The Web Services Framework is an easy-to-use framework for building a web service application in LogicNets. It helps you build simple web services and more complicated ones like RESTful API. 

The framework performs I/O handling and JSON and simple XML automatic conversion. It also allows you to override data conversion with custom conversion and implement multiple end points in a single web service application. You can easily test from the Designer.

Web Services URLs

The URL of your web service is composed of the following three parts: the host name, the start code, and the endpoint:

https://<host-name>/<start code of your web service>/<end-point>

For a project with a start code of demostart and an endpoint called endpoint_net the URL would be https://logicnets-demo.com/demostart/endpoint_net.

You specify the start code of your web service on your project settings page:

End Points

The logicnets in the endpoints folder are the endpoints for your web service, and the web service calls endpoints by their name. For example, the logicnet function_1 will be exposed as an endpoint and can be invoked by the following URL: https://<host-name>/<start code of your web service>/function_1 .

You can also use folders to organize endpoints. If you do that,  you need to incorporate the folder name in the endpoint path; for example,  the endpoint can be invoked by the following URL: https://<host-name>/<start code of your web service>/group_1/function_1 .

The endpoint logicnet is the place where you start modeling the logic. Except for form nodes that post information to the UI, all modeling components are available for the logic.

Special End Points

The system treats endpoints with the following names slightly differently: main, get, post, put, delete, and patch. If your endpoint has one of the these names, the names do not need to appear in the URL.

The URL to invoke the logicnet called main would be https://<host-name>/<start code of your web service . The name main does not need to appear in the URL, as main resolves to its parent folder in the endpoints folder. The URL to invoke the logicnet called post would be https://<host-name>/<start code of your web service> but it will have the HTTP method POST.

With main it is also possible to model one single (main-)entry of your web service application where you can route the call further to other logicnets within your application.

Testing

You can test your web service application using third-party test tools like Postan, SOAP UI. However, LogicNets also includes a test mode that allows you to test your application from the Designer. To use the test mode click the test button or CTRL+F8 key.
 

You can configure the request URL, parameters, content type, and body in the top section of the  testing tool. The bottom section displays the returned result and request result code.