Supported Data Types
The Info*Engine SOAP RPC servlet supports the following data types, which include primitive types, Java classes, and special Info*Engine classes:
• boolean, java.lang.Boolean
• double, java.lang.Double
• long, java.lang.Long
• float, java.lang.Float
• int, java.lang.Integer
• short, java.lang.Short
• byte, java.lang.Byte
• string, java.lang.String
• dateTime, java.util.Date
• java.math.BigDecimal
The following Info*Engine-specific data types are also supported for purposes of transferring Info*Engine data structures as embedded XML within SOAP requests:
• INFOENGINE_COLLECTION
• INFOENGINE_GROUP
• INFOENGINE_ELEMENT
• INFOENGINE_ATTRIBUTE
Parameters of each of these types are provided to the supporting task as the equivalent Java class. Single values of each of these types may be used as input parameters or as an output value.
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In order for the SOAP service to supply strongly-typed input parameters, the SOAP client must supply a strongly-typed SOAP request. Some third-party clients, such as Microsoft’s SOAP Toolkit, do not do this and as a result all input parameters are supplied to the task as strings.
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In addition to basic data types and arrays of basic data types, Info*Engine SOAP also supports complex types in the form of Java beans, both individually and in arrays. Indexed properties and nested beans are also supported. Returning nested beans requires generation of complex Info*Engine groups. These complex groups must be created manually as Info*Engine webjects do not currently generate complex nested groups.
The class of a Java bean must be found in the Info*Engine server and SOAP RPC servlet CLASSPATH so that the bean can be instantiated, examined, and manipulated at runtime. Similarly, if the client side of the SOAP communication uses Info*Engine classes, such as the Info*Engine Java EE connector, the Java bean class must also be available in the client CLASSPATH. For more information on the Info*Engine Java EE connector, see
Info*Engine Java EE Connector.
