This guide demonstrates how to Access a web service provided by www.xmethods.net. To find the WSDL (service description) for this service, you can download it at the following URL: http://services.xmethods.net/soap/urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes.wsdl . This service expects one piece of input: a valid stock ticker symbol. It has one output: a 20 minute delayed stock quote of the current price of the stock. In this example, we will use MSFT, the symbol for Microsoft.

We will use the SOAP component included in the IPWorks .NET Edition to access the web service. The IPWorks SOAP component implements a standard SOAP client as specified in the SOAP 1.1 specification.

For this, we will need several pieces of information about the service to continue. The Method URI, the Action URI, an endpoint URL, and a method name. All of this information can be obtained from the service provider or from the WSDL. This procedure is covered in separate document, "Understanding of WSDL". You can contact support@nsoftware.com if you would like more information.

For this particular service at xmethods.net, xmethods has been kind enough to provide us with all the details we will need:

 Method URI:	urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes
 Action URI:	urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes#getQuote
 Endpoint URL:	http://66.28.98.121:9090/soap
 Method:		getQuote

All of this information can be provided to the SOAP component with obvious properties:

Soap1.MethodURI = "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes"
Soap1.ActionURI = "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes/getQuote"
Soap1.URL = "http://66.28.98.121:9090/soap"
Soap1.Method = "getQuote"

We'll take this code and put it in a function, add the input data (MSFT) and call the SendRequest method to send the actual soap packet to the server.

Now we'll add a little GUI - a simple button to perform the Quote request (cmdGet), an input box for a user to enter a symbol (tbSymbol), an output box where the price will appear after the service returns it to the SOAP component (tbOutput).

When the "Get Quote" button is clicked, we call the function that we have defined, getStockQuote . This function will return the value of the price of the stock and we will output it to the output box.

Private Sub cmdGet_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, 
                         ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdGet.Click 
  tbOutput.Text += getStockQuote(tbSymbol.Text) 
End Sub 

We're finished! Below is the relevant source of this little demo.

Public Class Form1
  Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
 
  #Region " Windows Form Designer generated code "
 
  Public Function getStockQuote(ByVal symbol As String) As String
    Soap1.MethodURI = "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes"
    Soap1.ActionURI = "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes/getQuote"
    Soap1.URL = "http://66.28.98.121:9090/soap"
    Soap1.Method = "getQuote"
    Soap1.AddParam("symbol", symbol)
    Soap1.SendRequest()
    WSDL_StockQuoteService_getQuote = Soap1.ReturnValue()
  End Function
 
  Private Sub cmdGet_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, 
                         ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdGet.Click
        tbOutput.Text += getStockQuote(tbSymbol.Text)
  End Sub
End Class