Implementing Web Services

Web Services (WS) are reusable software components that can be consumed by variety of clients, independent of operating system, programming language, or Web server, using standard Internet technologies. Because Web Services allow heterogeneous systems to communicate with each other in a standard way, they have received quick acceptance for data interchange over the Web.

It’s easy for anyone to integrate your WS into their application. The client application can be a Web application, a Windows application, a Java application, a Visual Studio.net application, or a host of others—it does not matter as long as it supports Web Services.

A Web Service consists of one or more methods that expose functionality. In this sense, a Web Service is an API that can be accessed using SOAP over HTTP. This documentation does not explain how Web Services work. To learn about them, try these sites.

Ektron’s implementation of Web Services

Ektron’s Implementation of Web Services

Ektron supports XML Web Services. This means that you can create pages that

  • offer your content to any Web-enabled device
  • consume existing Web Services

Ektron’s Web Services feature can return data separated from presentation. In combination with XML support, this feature lets consumers retrieve your XML data independent of presentation information and act on it however they see fit.

Benefits of using Web services

Benefits of Using Web Services

Web Services make it easy to connect with partners. They can also deliver more personal, integrated experiences to users via smart devices, including PCs. WSs can save time and money by reducing development time, and increase revenue by making your XML Web services available to others.

WS components and Ektron architecture

WS Components and Ektron Architecture

Web Services require the installation of the .NET Framework on the server. Ektron’s Web Service runs within the .NET Framework. Through Application API classes in the Ektron.cms.API, .NET managed code can communicate with .NET Framework code.

Ektron methods

Ektron Methods

Ektron implements Web Services that exposes methods for accessing Ektron functionality. These methods mirror their Ektron.Cms.API equivalent that are available in the .NET Assemblies.

The methods determine the kind of content made available (for example, a content block, a collection of content blocks, a summary list) along with the presentation of that information (for example, an HTML string or an XML data structure representing content block information). Ektron’s API documentation contains a list of methods that are exposed with a brief description of functionality. You can access Ektron’s API documentation through the following resources.

  • API Help inside Visual Studio
    • In Visual Studio, choose Help > Contents
    • When the help window appears, expand Ektron API Documentation in the frame on the left. If you do not see this entry, use the filter and choose (unfiltered) or Ektron Documentation.
  • Ektron Developer Reference

These methods are made available through various .asmx files. Below is a list of features, the associated .asmx files, and the location on your server. When viewed in a browser, each file shows a list of the available methods for that feature.

—Feature descriptions—
  • Activity—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Activity.asmx
  • Business Rules—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\BusinessRules.asmx
  • Calendar—
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Calendar\Calendar.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Calendar\CalendarEvent.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Calendar\CalendarEventType.asmx
  • Community - Social Networking—
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\CommunityGroup.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\Favorites.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\Flag.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\Friends.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\MessageBoard.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Community\Tags.asmx
  • Content—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\Asset.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\Blog.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\Content.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\ContentRating.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\Form.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Content\ThreadedDiscussion.asmx
  • Custom Fields—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\CustomFields.asmx
  • Folders—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Folder.asmx
  • Fonts—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Font.asmx
  • Library—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Library.asmx
  • Metadata—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Metadata.asmx
  • Navigation - Menus—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Navigation\FlexMenu.asmx
  • Notification System—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Notification.asmx
  • Permissions—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Permissions.asmx
  • Search—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Search\SearchManager.asmx
  • Site—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Site.asmx
  • Site Map—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\SiteMap.asmx
  • Tasks—
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Task\Task.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Task\TaskCategory.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Task\TaskCategoryType.asmx
  • Taxonomy—siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\Taxonomy\Taxonomy.asmx
  • Users—
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\User\ActiveDirectoryUser.asmx
    • siteroot\Workarea\webservices\WebServiceAPI\UserUser.asmx
Ektron Web services examples

Ektron Web Services Examples

Ektron Web Services Example are available through in the Developer sample site.

After downloading the Developer sample site, you can view Web Services examples by accessing http://localhost/CMS400Developer/developer/default.aspx and selecting a feature from the side bar menu. If a feature has Web service examples associated with it, a folder containing the letters WS will appear in the list of items.

In addition to the examples, a link to the .asmx file appears. Clicking this link shows a lists all of the methods available for a given Web service.

The code examples for these Web Services are located on your server in Drive:\webroot\CMS400Developer\Developer\dotNetAssemblies\WebServicesAPI folder. This folder contains sub folders based on each feature for which there is an example.