When
a web service returns a complex type, you can write that returned
value directly to a ColdFusion variable.
The previous section used a complex data type named Employee
to define an input parameter to an operation. A WSDL file can also
define a return value using the Employee type, as the following
code shows:
<message name="updateEmployeeInfoSoapOut">
<part name="updateEmployeeInfoResult" type="s0:Employee" />
</message>
<operation name="updateEmployeeInfo">
<input message="s0:updateEmployeeInfoSoapIn" />
<output message="s0:updateEmployeeInfoSoapOut" />
</operation>
In this example, the operation updateEmployeeInfo takes a complex
type as input and returns a complex type as output. To handle the
input parameter, you create a structure. To handle the returned
value, you write it to a ColdFusion variable, as the following example
shows:
<!--- Create a structure using CFScript, then call the web service. --->
<!--- Write the returned value to a ColdFusion variable. --->
<cfscript>
stUser = structNew();
stUser.active = TRUE;
stUser.fname = "John";
stUser.lname = "Smith";
stUser.age = 23;
stUser.hiredate = createDate(2002,02,22);
stUser.number = 123.321;
ws = createObject("webservice", "http://somehost/echosimple.asmx?wsdl");
myReturnVar = ws.echoStruct(stUser);
</cfscript>
<!--- Output the returned values. --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
<br>Name of employee is: #myReturnVar.fname##myReturnVar.lname#
<br>Active status: #myReturnVar.active#
<br>Age:#myReturnVar.age#
<br>Hire Date: #myReturnVar.hiredate#
<br>Favorite Number: #myReturnVar.number#
</cfoutput>
You access elements of the variable myReturnVar using dot notation
in the same way that you access structure fields. If a complex type
has nested elements, in the way a structure can have multiple levels
of nested fields, you use dot notation to access the nested elements,
as in a.b.c.d, to whatever nesting level is necessary.
However, the variable myReturnVar is not a ColdFusion structure.
It is a container for the complex type, but has none of the attributes
of a ColdFusion structure. Calling the ColdFusion function isStruct on
the variable returns False.
You can copy the contents of the variable to a ColdFusion structure,
as the following example shows:
<cfscript>
...
ws = createObject("webservice", "http://somehost/echosimple.asmx?wsdl");
myReturnVar = ws.echoStruct(stUser);
realStruct = structNew();
realStruct.active = #myReturnVar.active#;
realStruct.fname = "#myReturnVar.fname#";
realStruct.lname = "#myReturnVar.lname#";
realStruct.age = #myReturnVar.age#;
realStruct.hiredate = #myReturnVar.hiredate#;
realStruct.number = #myReturnVar.number#;
</cfscript>
Calling IsStruct on realStruct returns True
and you can use all ColdFusion structure functions to process it.
This example shows that ColdFusion variables and structures are
useful for handling complex types returned from web services. To
understand how to access the elements of a complex type written
to a ColdFusion variable, inspect the WSDL file for the web service.
The WSDL file defines the API to the web service and provides you
with the information necessary to handle data returned from it.
