Creating a VB.NET Client for a ColdFusion Web Service - Creating a Web Reference
(Page 3 of 4 )
The client, in this case CFDotNetWebClient, does not access the web service directly. It uses a middleman, a proxy to access the service. Now, how do you create a proxy? How does a proxy access the service? Let us see how to create a proxy first.
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 has a nice utility in its suite of utilities. This utility can be accessed by right clicking the References node in the solution explorer and choosing Add Web Reference. This brings up the wizard shown in Fig.3.
Fig.2 
In Fig.3, by navigating to the ASMX file or the WSDL file, either by typing the URL directly into the drop-down or by clicking the drop-down by the side of URL: field, the Go button becomes active. In this case clicking on GO will search for the file, and if it exists it adds a proxy to the Web reference name: field, and provides a description in the area above it in the Web Services found at this URL: field. You may also browse the various places you may find this file in the indicated links on this utility's opening page, as seen in Fig.3.
Fig.3 
Fig.4 shows the stage at which the Web reference has been located. Review all the items in this window. This figure shows that one service that is referenced by the WSDL is found on localhost (this is the local web server). The Service name is justFunction. Further this service has just one method, called WelcomeMsg(). Clicking on the button Add Reference will add this proxy to your project. If you want you may rename the localhost to some other name. It was renamed CFWsvcProxy as shown in Fig.5.
Fig.4
Fig.5 shows the Project in the solution explorer view with all the web references.
Fig.5
Next: Creating the Client User Interface >>
More Visual Basic.NET Articles
More By Jayaram Krishnaswamy
/ 8 
