SOAP Connector

SOAP connectors support sending SOAP messages to remote web services and retrieving the response.

Key Capabilities

Full SOAP web service client with WSDL import for automatic configuration
WS-Security support with message signing, encryption, and certificate management
Multiple authentication methods including HTTP, Token, and TLS client authentication
SOAP template generation through WSDL integration with the XML Map connector
Support for SOAP versions 1.1 and 1.2 with configurable security token formats

Overview

The input to a SOAP connector should be the full SOAP message to send to the web service. You can generate a template for the SOAP message by importing a WSDL for the target web service. Read the SOAP Templates section for details. The SOAP connector supports HTTP Authentication, Token Authentication, and TLS Client Authentication, and can add digital encryption and signatures to the outgoing SOAP message for web service security. After sending the SOAP request, the connector stores the response or passes it along to the next connector in the CData Arc flow.

Connector Configuration

This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.

Settings Tab

Partner Info

Settings for identifying the target web service.

Setting	Description
Connector Id	The static, unique identifier for the connector.
Connector Type	Displays the connector name and a description of what it does.
Connector Description	An optional field to provide a free-form description of the connector and its role in the flow.
Service Endpoint	The URL to which SOAP requests should be sent.
Allow ArcScript in Service Endpoint	Allows for the evaluation of ArcScript expressions in the service endpoint URL before the query is issued. When you select this, the ArcScript Editor button appears (), which enables you to build dynamic URLs using ArcScript.
SOAP Action	The web service action to be triggered on the remote server.
SOAP Version	The version of SOAP you are using.
Import from WSDL	WSDLs can be imported from a URL or from a local file, and then automatically populate configuration fields in the connector. Importing a WSDL also allows for generating an XML template for SOAP requests when connected to an XML Map connector. See SOAP Templates for details.

WS-Security

Settings related to securing the web service transmissions.

Setting	Description
Send Message Security	Whether to sign and/or encrypt outgoing SOAP requests.
Receive Message Security	Whether to require that signatures and encryption are present for incoming SOAP responses. An error is thrown if a received message does not have a required security parameter.
Time To Live	The length of time the connector waits for a connection response before throwing a timeout error.

Client Certificate

Settings related to the private local certificates.

Setting	Description
Private Certificate	The private certificate used for signing outgoing requests and decrypting incoming responses.
Certificate Password	The password for accessing the private certificate.

Server Certificates

Settings related to the server’s public certificates.

Setting	Description
Encryption Certificate	The public certificate used for encryption when sending messages and signature verification when receiving responses.
TLS Server Certificate	The public certificate used to verify the identity of an SSL/TLS server. Only required if you are sending requests over HTTPS (instead of HTTP). In the absence of a specific server certificate, you can leave this blank to allow the underlying OS/JVM to perform certificate validation, or you can set it to `Any Certificate` to trust the target server’s identity. Use Any Certificate with caution: the certificate verifies that you are connecting to the intended server.

Advanced Tab

Token Authentication

Settings related to token client authentication.

Setting	Description
Token Authentication	Check this to enable token authentication for outgoing messages. If enabled, outgoing messages include the user credentials set below.
Username	The username required to access the token.
Password	The password required to access the token.
Password Type	Use the radio buttons to specify whether the password is in plain text (Text) or is encrypted (Digest).

TLS Client Authentication

Settings related to client authentication when two-way TLS authentication is required.

Setting	Description
Private Certificate	The private certificate presented during TLS client authentication.
Certificate Password	The password required to access the TLS client certificate.

HTTP Authentication

Settings related to HTTP client authentication.

Setting	Description
Use HTTP Authentication	Check this to enable client HTTP Authentication.
HTTP Authentication Type	Whether to provide HTTP authentication credentials in an encrypted format (Digest) or in plain text (Basic). Basic authentication should only be used if the connection is an HTTPS connection (rather than HTTP).
User	The User credential for HTTP client authentication.
Password	The Password credential for HTTP client authentication.

Custom Headers

A set of custom headers to include as part of the outgoing message.

Advanced Settings

Settings not included in the previous categories.

Setting	Description
Connection Timeout	The length of time the connector waits for a connection response before throwing a timeout error.
Encryption Algorithm	The algorithm to use when encrypting outgoing messages.
Normalize Issuer Subject	Whether certificate issuer data should be normalized into a simple string for validation by the web service.
Signature Algorithm	The algorithm to use when signing outgoing messages. The same algorithm is requested for the corresponding MDN receipts.
Sign Header Payload	By default, the connector only signs the body of the SOAP message. Check this to have the connector also sign the headers.
Security Token Format	Determines the format used for security tokens in SOAP payloads. X509 references contain the certificate subject in DN (distinguished name) format. Binary tokens use the Base64 encoded contents of the entire public key. KeyIdentifier references contain the X509 Subject-Key-Identifier format.
Local File Scheme	A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.
TLS Enabled Protocols	The list of SSL/TLS protocols supported when establishing outgoing connections. Best practice is to only use TLS protocols. Keep in mind that SSLv2 and SSLv3 are considered vulnerable and should only be used if your partner does not support higher versions. Keep in mind that TLS v1.3 is not universally adopted, and might be refused if the destination server does not support them.
Verification Certificate	The public certificate used to verify incoming SOAP responses. This field is only necessary if a different certificate should be used to verify signatures than the public certificate set in Encryption Certificate.
Output Behavior	By default, the connector outputs a message containing the `Response` data. The other options allow you to output the `Input Message` so it can be processed further, or to not output a message at all. See Response Event for more information.
Processing Delay	The amount of time (in seconds) by which the processing of files placed in the Transactions tab is delayed. This is a legacy setting. Best practice is to use a File connector to manage local file systems instead of this setting.

Proxy Settings

These are a collection of settings that identify and authenticate to the proxy through which the connection should be routed. By default, this section uses the global settings on the Proxy Settings portion of the Security Settings page. Clear the checkbox to supply settings specific to your connector.

Setting	Description
Proxy Type	The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Host	The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Port	The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy User	The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Password	A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall.
Authentication Scheme	Leave the default None or choose from one of the following authentication schemes: Basic, Digest, Proprietary, or NTLM.

Logging

Settings that govern the creation and storage of logs.

Setting	Description
Log Level	The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
Log Subfolder Scheme	Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. The Weekly option (which is the default) instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. Leaving this setting blank tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders helps keep logs organized and improves performance.
Log Messages	Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Transactions tab.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

Setting	Description
Other Settings	Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, `setting1=value1;setting2=value2`). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

Setting	Description
Send	Whether files arriving at the connector are automatically sent as SOAP requests.
Retry Interval	The amount of time before a failed send is retried. A retry is triggered when the server does not respond to a send attempt, or responds negatively to communicate that the file was not received.
Max Attempts	The maximum number of times the connector sends outgoing requests. Success is measured based on a successful server acknowledgement. If you set this to 0, the connector retries the request indefinitely.

Performance

Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.

Setting	Description
Max Workers	The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.
Max Files	The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Establishing a Connection

The Service Endpoint and Service Action for the target web service are required to establish a connection. Some web services might require one or more security features for SOAP requests:

Encryption/Signing (WS-Security)
Client SSL Authentication
HTTP Authentication

SOAP Templates

The SOAP connector can simplify the process of generating SOAP requests through the use of a WSDL file and an XML Map connector that is connected to the SOAP connector in the flow. The WSDL file defines the appropriate XML structure for SOAP requests, and the XML Map connector can transform any XML structure into this target structure. After using the Import WSDL button to import the file, connect an XML Map connector to the SOAP connector (so that files processed by the XML Map connector are then sent to the SOAP connector). After saving these flow changes, the XML Map connector can dynamically read the WSDL XML and use it as a Destination File template. Then, upload any source XML structure as the Source File in the XML Map connector. After the Source File and Destination File are set in the XML Map connector, the visual designer is populated with the source and destination structures. Drag-and-drop elements from the source to the destination to map the relationship between the two XML structures. After the mapping is complete, files that match the Source File are automatically converted into SOAP requests by the XML Map connector.

Response Event

You can use a response event to interact with the response received from the server (which includes the body, headers, cookies, and so on), and to enrich the output message generated from the connector. You can use the following special items in the Response event.

Response Event Example

This script reads the XML response received from the server, parses out the access token contained in the XML, and adds it as a header onto the output message created by the connector:

<arc:set attr="xml.text" value="[_response.body]" />
<arc:set attr="xml.map:access_token" value="/root/token" />
<arc:call op="xmlDOMGet" item="xml">
  <arc:set attr="_message.header:access_token" value="[xml.access_token | def('Token not found!')]"/>
</arc:call>

The following steps detail what happens:

The body of the response sent by the server back to the connector is accessed via _response.body and is set to the text attribute of the xmlDOMGet operation. Other attributes of xmlDOMGet are also populated, such as the map attribute with the XPath to the desired token in the response body.
The xmlDOMGet operation is called. If the token is found in the response XML body, it is added as a message header to the output message of the connector via the _message.header:access_token syntax. If the token is not found, the value of the access_token header is set to a static string: Token not found!.

This type of script is useful when you need to parse data from the raw XML response body received back from a server after a request is sent to it. The header can then be read and used in subsequent connectors in the flow.

If the server responds using JSON, you can achieve the same result using jsonDOMGet.

Getting Started

Flows

EDI Trading Partner Management Console

Connectors

Mapping

APIs and Automation

How-To Guides

Scripting

Software License and Third-Party Copyrights

Key Capabilities

Overview

Connector Configuration

Settings Tab

Partner Info

WS-Security

Client Certificate

Server Certificates

Advanced Tab

Token Authentication

TLS Client Authentication

HTTP Authentication

Custom Headers

Advanced Settings

Proxy Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Performance

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Establishing a Connection

SOAP Templates

Response Event

Response Event Example

Macros

Examples

​Key Capabilities

​Overview

​Connector Configuration

​Settings Tab

​Partner Info

​WS-Security

​Client Certificate

​Server Certificates

​Advanced Tab

​Token Authentication

​TLS Client Authentication

​HTTP Authentication

​Custom Headers

​Advanced Settings

​Proxy Settings

​Logging

​Miscellaneous

​Automation Tab

​Automation Settings

​Performance

​Alerts Tab

​SLAs Tab

​Establishing a Connection

​SOAP Templates

​Response Event

​Response Event Example

​Macros

​Examples

Key Capabilities

Overview

Connector Configuration

Settings Tab

Partner Info

WS-Security

Client Certificate

Server Certificates

Advanced Tab

Token Authentication

TLS Client Authentication

HTTP Authentication

Custom Headers

Advanced Settings

Proxy Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Performance

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Establishing a Connection

SOAP Templates

Response Event

Response Event Example

Macros

Examples