Generating Clients

Describes the methods provided for generating client applications for each service interface type, including Web services, .NET interfaces, and Java interfaces, and for generating clients directly from a WSDL file or JSON schema.

You can generate client applications either from the Visual Studio IDE or by executing the imtkmake command.

Generate from Visual Studio
You can generate client applications from a service interface (.svi) file, a WSDL or JSON schema file in a Visual Studio project, or from a standalone WSDL or JSON schema file. All of the following methods generate a COBOL console client application plus other applicable client applications as selected on the Service Interface options page.
Service interface (.svi) file
If you have used the Interface Mapper to create a service interface in Visual Studio, you can generate one or more clients from the service interface file in the project. By default, Visual COBOL generates a COBOL console client for all but Java interfaces. Various additional types of clients can also be generated depending on the type of service interface:
WPF Application
Generate Windows Presentation Foundation clients for Web service interfaces.
Windows Forms Application
Generate Windows Forms clients for Web service interfaces.
ASP.NET Web Site
Generate ASP.NET Web sites for .NET interfaces.
JSP Application
Generate a JSP client application from Java interface service interface types.

The generation of a JSP client application for a Java interface is automatic. However, to generate additional client types for a Web service or a .NET interface, you must specify the additional client types in your client generation options. For more information, see To set client generation options. For instructions on generating clients from a service interface file, see To generate client applications from a service interface file.

WSDL file or JSON schema file(s) in a project
This method of generating a Web service client is similar to generating a Web service from a WSDL file or JSON schema file(s) in that you use the same Generate Web Service dialog box, but specify client generation instead of service generation. Using this method, client applications are generated as projects in the current solution. See To generate a client application from WSDL or JSON for instructions.
Standalone WSDL file or JSON schema file
Starting from a standalone WSDL file or JSON schema file, you can generate a Web service client application by creating a new Visual Studio project using the Web Service Client Application from WSDL/JSON template. This type of project contains just the generated client application. See To generate a Web service client application project from WSDL or JSON for instructions.
Generate from the imtkmake command
This method is fully documented in the imtkmake command topic.