Creating Custom Apex SOAP based Web Service in Salesforce.com's Force.com platform

This blog describes how to create a Custom web service in Salesforce using Apex.

Steps:

• Navigate to Setup>Develop>Apex Classes  and create new class by clicking new button.
• Write a class with "global" access modifier with methods (to be exposed) with "webService" keyword

        eg.

global class KartikService
{
    webService static String hello(String Name) 
    {
        return 'Hello '+Name+' ! :D';
    }
}

• Then save this class. After saving the class you will view a button "Generate WSDL". Click on that to get WSDL for web service you just created. Save the WSDL file. Let say file name is "KartikService.wsdl"
• Now we will consider how we generate clients to call this service in Java and in .Net.

 For Java:

• We will create new project in Eclipse with name "ApexCustomWS"
• You need Enterprise/Partner WSDL to access your Salesforce org. by getting a valid sessionId.
• Import Enterprise or Partner WSDL file into the project and generate the web service client for that.
• Import the "KartikService.wsdl" into project and  generate web service client by right clicking on the WSDL file.
• Image below shows code generated for Partner WSDL in Blue box and code for Custom Web service in Red Box

Above step will generate few Java files. Now add a class "Test.java" and write following code:

package com.sforce.soap.schemas._class.KartikService;
 
import java.net.URL;
import org.apache.axis.AxisFault;
import com.sforce.soap.partner.LoginResult;
import com.sforce.soap.partner.SessionHeader;
import com.sforce.soap.partner.SforceServiceLocator;
import com.sforce.soap.partner.SoapBindingStub;
 
public class Test 
{
   public static void main(String[] args) 
   {
       try 
       {
         //Get a stub for calling partner WSDL's login method in order to get SessionID
         SoapBindingStub bind= (SoapBindingStub)new SforceServiceLocator().getSoap();
         LoginResult lr=bind.login("your_username_here", "your_Password+SecurityToken");
 
         //Create a sessionHeader object and set its sessioId property to sessionId 
         //received in loginResult object                        
         SessionHeader sh=new SessionHeader();
         sh.setSessionId(lr.getSessionId());
 
         //Create a service locator object for your custom web service
         KartikServiceServiceLocator locator=new KartikServiceServiceLocator();
 
         //Get URL for your custom web service
         URL url=new URL(locator.getKartikServiceAddress());
 
         //Create a stub for your custom web service with URL for your service and locator as parameters
         KartikServiceBindingStub stub=new KartikServiceBindingStub(url, locator);
 
         //Set the header property of stub with name "SessionHeader" and value as sh-sessionHeader 
         //object created above 
         stub.setHeader(locator.getKartikServiceAddress(), "SessionHeader", sh);
 
         //now make call to custom service-in our case its "Hello(String name)"
         System.out.println(stub.hello("KARTIK"));
        }
        catch (Exception e) 
        {e.printStackTrace(); }  
   } 
}

Its output:

Hello KARTIK !

For VB.NET:

• Create a new Winows project or ASP.net project with name "ApexCustomWS"
• Add Web Service Reference using Partner.wsdl with namespace name as "sForceService"
• Add Web Service Reference using KartikService.wsdl with namespace name as "MyCustomApexWS"

               

• Now the project in solution explorer with these references will look like :

               

• Now we write a procedure "callCustomApexService" that first calls login service and get a sessionID and then make call to custom web service.
• Code:

• Imports ApexCustomWS.sForceService
  Imports ApexCustomWS.MyCustomApexWS
   
  Public Class Form1
      Public Sub callCustomApexService()
          Dim stub As New ApexCustomWS.sForceService.SforceService
          Dim lr As LoginResult
          Dim sh As New ApexCustomWS.sForceService.SessionHeader
   
          'make call to login service to get sessionId
          lr = stub.login("your_username_here", "your_Password+SecurityToken")        sh.sessionId = lr.sessionId
          stub.Url = lr.serverUrl
          stub.SessionHeaderValue = sh
   
          'Create stub to call custom web service
          Dim myserviceStub As New MyCustomApexWS.KartikServiceService
          myserviceStub.SessionHeaderValue = New MyCustomApexWS.SessionHeader
          myserviceStub.SessionHeaderValue.sessionId = sh.sessionId
   
          MsgBox(myserviceStub.hello("KARTIK"))
   
      End Sub
      Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
          callCustomApexService()
      End Sub
  End Class

Output of above code will be a MessageBox when the Winform will load in memory.