An endpoint listener is a Web service-enabled entry point to one
or more service integration buses. An endpoint listener carries requests
and responses between Web service clients and buses.
An endpoint listener is the point (address) at which messages for an inbound
service are received. The endpoint listeners that are supplied with WebSphere
Application Server support SOAP over HTTP and SOAP over JMS bindings.
A request arrives at an endpoint listener. It is then passed to an inbound
port (at which point security and JAX-RPC handler lists can be applied) and
sent on to the service destination.
Responses follow the same path in reverse.
The endpoint listener acts as the ultimate receiver of a SOAP message.
The resulting messages that pass across the service integration bus are not
then SOAP messages, rather just the data and context that resulted from receiving
the SOAP message.
To use an endpoint listener:
- Install the endpoint listener application in WebSphere
Application Server.
- Configure the endpoint
listener for an application server or cluster and
(as part of the configuration) connect the endpoint listener to one or more
available service integration buses.
- On a service integration bus for which you have configured the endpoint
listener:
- Configure an inbound
service and (as part of the configuration) connect the service to an
endpoint listener.
- An inbound port is automatically created for each endpoint listener that
you select.
Two versions of each type of endpoint listener are supplied. This is so
that, for each endpoint listener type, you can set up separate endpoint listeners
for (for example) requests from your internal users and requests from your
external users. Each endpoint listener is associated with a specific server
or cluster, a specific set of service integration buses
and (through inbound ports) a specific set of Web services. By
restricting access to an endpoint listener,
you can give different user groups access to different services. For example:
- To give users inside your organization access to the full range of internal
and external services, you make those services available through one endpoint
listener.
- To give users outside your organization access to those internal services
that you choose to publish externally, you make those services also available
through the other endpoint listener.