The Web Service References Tool is designed to make it easier for applications enabled with Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA), such as CorelDRAW, to reference XML Web services and quickly integrate them into custom solutions.

Within the context of creating customized applications, it is best to think of XML Web services as prepackaged blocks of functionality or information hosted on the Internet. The Web Service References Tool lets developers find and select the blocks that are best suited to a specific project. Rather than create custom macros and add-ins from scratch, developers can use the Web Service References tool to find and integrate equivalent XML Web services, saving development time and money.

Say, for example, that you want to customize CorelDRAW by adding a file conversion service. Using traditional development methods you would have to create, test, and implement code in order to add that custom functionality to the application. With the Web Services Reference Tool, however, you can locate a file conversion XML Web service that can be referenced in a few quick steps from within the application, giving it the required custom functionality in much less time and with much less effort.

Once you select an XML Web service, the Web Services References tool creates a VBA proxy class that compiles its methods and input and output parameters. You can then create objects based on these classes and take advantage of IntelliSense, which automatically corrects errors, and syntax checking.

Using the Web Service References Tool

Install the Web Service References Tool from the second CD of and the SOAP Toolkit 2.0 SP2 redistributable files.

1. Open CorelDRAW and click Tools >Visual Basic > Visual Basic Editor
2. Click Tools > References.
3. In the Available References list, enable Microsoft Soap Type Library.
4. Click Ok.

The Web Service References tool includes a number of important items:

• Web Service Search area — allows you to perform an XML Web service search using keywords or a business name against a UDDI business registry
• Web Service URL area — allows you to search for an XML Web service using a specific URL to WSDL or Visual Studio .NET discovery (.vsdisco) file
• Search Results area — allows you to select available XML Web services
• Test button — allows you to test an XML Web method you select in the Search Results area if the method has been supplied with a test

After you select one or more XML Web services and click Add, the Web Service References Tool creates

• one class module (.cls) file for each selected XML Web service. Each .cls file begins with the prefix “clsws” followed by the name of the XML Web service. For example, if an XML Web service is called FileConversion, the class name will be clswsFileConversion.
• one Private object variable in the .cls file. The object variable begins with the prefix “sc” followed by the name of the XML Web service. A private object would then be called, for example, sc_FlightStatus.
• one Private constant in the .cls file that corresponds to the URL of the XML Web service's WSDL. This constant is always named c_WSDL_URL.
• one Public function in the .cls file for each Web method in the XML Web service. The function begins with “wsm” and is followed by the Web method's name and corresponding input and output parameters.

For more information on integrating an XML Web service into a custom CorelDRAW solution, please visit the Code Samples & Downloads section.

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