Glossary Item Box

Government Gateway 2.2.0 (MR-01) ISV Developer Help (Doc Version 06/03/08) | Send comments on this topic.

# Development Libraries and Tools

This help file includes detailed information about the SOAP message envelope structure, security tokens, and the input and output XML schemas for each Gateway Web services method. This level of detail provides the basis for developers to build solutions:

- Web-based Portals (though the SOAP Portal Interface)
- ISV applications (through the SOAP Public Interface)
- Service owner, administration and helpdesk applications (through the SOAP Admin and KnownFactUpload Interfaces)

The Gateway’s adherence to Web Services standards, including SOAP 1.1, WS-Addressing, WS-Security, WS-Trust, and WS-Policy standards, ensures the full functionality of the Gateway is accessible from virtually any client technology platform.

Web Service Toolkits

Much of the effort involved in constructing SOAP messages relates to creating security tokens and XML signatures. Development toolkits, based on Web Services Security (WS-Security), can provide much of this. Toolkits are available for use with various development tools and environments. Examples include:

- Microsoft Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0 for the Windows .NET platform. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices
- Apache WSS4J Java library implementation of the OASIS Web Services Security (WS-Security). See http://ws.apache.org/wss4j
- BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 Java development environment. See http://www.bea.com/weblogic

It is important to ensure that the output produced is compatible with the requirements of the Gateway – interpretation and implementation of standards can vary. Additionally, a toolkit cannot directly provide all the elements required. For example, unlike UsernameTokens or X509SecurityTokens, GatewayTokens are not part of the WS-Security specification – it is an extension and therefore customisation is required.

Gateway Business Library

To improve productivity a development team would normally create a high-level library (ideally on top of the existing toolkits described) to allow SOAP messages to be constructed and manipulated transparently from a consistent set of Gateway business classes. The advantage of this approach is that most developers within a team do not need to understand the detail of XML schemas or SOAP envelope elements. This library, like the toolkits, would be platform/tool dependent. An example library is available for the Windows .NET platform, based on WSE 2.0; for information please contact the EDT.

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