REST Bindings

REST components map your SCA services to REST. This allows you integrate your SCA services with clients that use HTTP instead of SOAP.

ActiveMatrix service development typically starts with a WSDL, which defines the service interfaces. Developers expose SOAP or JMS services by adding SOAP or JMS bindings on a promoted component service.

The REST component allows you to expose those services as REST services that can consume Badgerfish JSON, Standard JSON, or XML. You can add multiple bindings and multiple types of bindings on the same composite services. That means the same service can expose SOAP, JMS, and REST interfaces to service consumers at the same time.

Typical use cases include the following.

  • Mobile clients have to consume an ActiveMatrix SCA service.
  • Web clients or scripting clients (thin clients) participate in SCA.
  • Mashups or web sites have to expose services as APIs.

The REST bindings are especially helpful in the following situations.

  • Mobile devices need to interact with back-end applications and services.
  • Mobile application developers find it difficult to program the SOAP stack on the client side.
  • Developers use modern scripting languages like JavaScript and Ruby, which provide first class support for JSON and XML processing.

In these cases, the REST component allows the clients to easily invoke ActiveMatrix SCA services.

For information on REST components, see REST Binding Development Guide.