📄️ Annotations
USoft Service Definer uses annotations (the Java concept) primarily to map incoming and outgoing XML and JSON formats to data structures and to govern how parameters are specified in messages and URL strings.
📄️ Applications
In the USoft Services Platform, an application is a software module that offers a set of functions to users. These functions are interconnected and form a logical whole from a functional point of view. In a USoft context, the functions that an application offers are typically related because they access or manipulate the same cluster of structured data and because this data is governed by rules implemented in a USoft Rules Engine.
📄️ Classes
A class is a coded software construct, a set of instructions that provides an implementation of a specific behaviour. The language used in Service Definer for a class (as well as for a service) is Java. You can use classes in Service Definer typically for general code re-use, if you want to use an implementation of some specific behaviour in multiple services or multiple service methods.
📄️ Connections
In a USoft application other than a client/server (Windows) application, all functionality is offered by a Rules Service that taps into that application.
📄️ CORS configurations
A CORS configuration is a set of rules exposed by a server that express the extent to which the server allows cross-domain requests. A cross-domain request is a request that programmatically gets or sets resources that have their origin on a different server.
📄️ File resources
You can define text-based resources. You can then use these resources, referred to as "file resources", in annotations, in service method implementations, and in classes associated with a server.
📄️ Functional types
A functional type is a construct in Service Definer that allows you to name a service, class, structure or Java interface and then refer to it by name in a service, class or structure in order to re-use the corresponding implementation logic.
📄️ Example: Reservation event functional type
Service Definer allows you to define technical interfaces so that you can build an integration layer between different systems. A technical interface defines the characteristics of integrations between systems: the operations themselves, whether operations are read or write, data transport layers, data formats...
📄️ Multiple connections and Rules Services
You can use multiple connections and multiple Rules Services for an application. Use multiple connections or Rules Services (or both) if you want to:
📄️ Queue Services
A queue service in Service Definer is a Service (Other) that allows you to read and/or process rows from a queue table defined in Definer a first-in-first-out order.
📄️ Reroute mappings
A reroute mapping is an arrangement that allows your user's browser to access USoft web resources by a shorter, simpler URL than the traditional, standard USoft URL.
📄️ REST Services
See: Predefined REST Services
📄️ Servers
A server is a software construct that enables an organisation to expose (publish, advertise) REST services.
📄️ Server properties
A server defined in USoft Service Definer may serve static resources: HTML pages, images, XSLT transformations..... You can locate these resources by using the WWWROOT server property.
📄️ Server administration settings
In the Servers window or tab, on the Administration tab, you can make a number of settings to configure service administration aspects.
📄️ Server security settings
In the Servers window or tab, on the Security tab, you can make a number of settings about the use of SSL certificates.
📄️ Extending your response when a request is throttled
When throttling of requests is enabled for a Server, if the number of incoming requests exceeds the throttling limit, you will get a status code 429 and a message that the server is getting too many requests.
📄️ SOAP Services
A USoft application can be the provider of conventional web services using the SOAP protocol. This was possible even before the advent of the USoft Services Platform in USoft 9:
📄️ Services (Other)
A service is a software construct that enables repeated access to a specific capability and that delivers this capability, together with policies that should control its usage.
📄️ Structures
A structure is, in functional terms, a named list of fields that correspond to data with specific format characteristics. For example, a structure called "CustomerDetails" could have the following fields:
📄️ Example: Custom authorization for REST services
USoft provides different authentication schemes. It also allows you to create your own custom authentication. REST services in USoft Service Definer use the Java Jersey Framework. This framework provides a set of features that you can use in Service Definer to extend current functionality. One of the features is the possibility of adding filters to a REST request. By defining a REST request filter, you can add an authentication check before the method is executed. Check Java and Jersey Framework documentation for more explanation on filters.