A PowerBuilder application can act as a client consuming a Web service that is accessed through the Internet. Using SOAP and WSDL, a collection of functions published remotely as a single entity can become part of your PowerBuilder application. A Web service accepts and responds to requests sent by applications or other Web services.
Invoking Web services through SOAP requires serialization and deserialization of data types, and the building and parsing of XML-based SOAP messages. Using objects from an extension file or dynamic library that installs with PowerBuilder, the Web services client proxy performs these tasks for you—thereby eliminating the need to have extensive knowledge of the SOAP specification and schema, the XML Schema specification, or the WSDL specification and schema.
