This section discusses the resources that are required in order to successfully deploy the Web services platform.

In addition to the Redistributable Runtime Files required by all VAST Platform applications, Web services applications will need to access the resources described below.

(Required for ALL VAST Web services)

Service-specific files are created and maintained by the service developer. These files are used to customize the behavior of the Web services platform and the services that are managed.

Container deployment descriptor - an XML file that describes the configuration for the Web services container.

Services deployment descriptor - an XML file that describes the resources required for one or more services.

Mapping specification files - XML files that conforms to the supplied DTD named abtxmap.dtd. Mapping specifications contain rules to enable conversion between XML and Smalltalk objects.

WSDL files - The WSDL files that describe the services to be deployed.

If you plan to deploy Web services using image components, it is recommended that you create a separate copy of the service deployment descriptor for runtime usage. The development time deployment descriptor typically must not reference image components, but the runtime deployment descriptor should supply references to required image components.

After copying the deployment descriptor, add any necessary image components to the deployment file as shown below.

Any image components that are required by multiple services can be specified in the container deployment descriptor.

Prior to starting the Web services platform, make sure that all required system files are resolvable. By default, the XML parser attempts to resolve unqualified resources by checking the image directory. Resources not located in the image directory are assumed to be at the location described by the DefaultResourceQualifier entry of the [Xml] stanza in the application .ini file.

If XML system resources are to be shared among applications running on different machines, it is advisable to place the system files in a common location, and modify the DefaultResourceQualifier to point to that common location. It is also possible to override the absolute path for an unqualified resource by declaring an association in the ini file as shown below.

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If using image components, make sure that any required system image components are copied along with the image components for your application. The default image component location can be modified in the .ini file stanza as shown below.

When starting the Web services leaf IC, use the command line option '-ws:' to specify the location of a container deployment descriptor that is deployed when the image is started.

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After the sstwspfm.ic leaf image component is started, the container described by mycontainer.xml is created and configured. A walkback.log is created for errors that occur during deployment.

After successfully starting the image, it should be possible to invoke any services that were deployed during container initialization.