Overview of service bindings

A service binding is a definition that gives details about how a requester accesses a service. The type of binding depends on how the requested service is deployed.

Here are the types of bindings:
  • SOAP binding. In this case, data is transferred across the web in a text-based format called SOAP.

    In a Rich UI application or in EGL-generated Java™ code, you can define the binding in code or in the EGL deployment descriptor. In EGL-generated COBOL code, you can define the binding only in the EGL deployment descriptor.

    For details about SOAP, see Architectural styles in web services."

  • REST binding. In this case, data is transferred across the web in a text-based format but not in a SOAP format.

    In a Rich UI application, you can define the binding in code or in the EGL deployment descriptor. Outside of Rich UI, you can define the binding in the EGL deployment descriptor only.

    For details about REST, see Architectural styles in web services and REST for the developer.

  • EGL binding. In this case, binary data is transferred in a format that is specific to EGL. With an EGL binding, the connection is relatively fast, but non-EGL-generated code cannot access the service.
    The product supports EGL binding as follows:
    • A Rich UI application can access a dedicated service, which is an EGL service that is local to the Rich UI proxy. The application cannot access other EGL services. The deployment descriptor is not used for accessing a local EGL service from a Rich UI application. For details about how to bind to a dedicated service, see Declaring a variable to access a dedicated or local EGL service.
    • Other EGL-generated logic can access an EGL service, and you define the binding in the EGL deployment descriptor.
  • Native binding. In this case, data is transferred in a binary format that provides direct access to an IBM® i service program.
    The product supports native binding as follows:
    • A Rich UI application cannot access the service program directly, but a dedicated service can.
    • Other EGL-generated logic can access an EGL service, and you define the binding in the EGL deployment descriptor.