HTTP Post Target URLs

Applies to: SharePoint Workspace 2010 | Visual Studio 2008

To perform a Groove Web Services operation, you specify:

  • HTTP Post URL that identifies the HTTP device and port, the service and, typically, also identifies the underlying Groove object instance that provides the service.

  • Groove header information that provides security information and identifies the identity that has access to the underlying Groove object instance.

  • Operation to be performed.

  • Parameters required by the operation, if any.

The Groove Web Services APIs are designed based on a style of Web Services where the Post URL includes an (URI) identifier that uniquely addresses the object to which the web service call applies. This is accomplished by returning a reference to an object as a URI with service-specific data identifying the object.

For example, the following describes the Post URL to access the GrooveFilesBase64 service:

http://device:port-number/GWS/Groove/2.0/FilesBase64/service-specific-data

The device part of this URL is created by the application. The application should read the port number from Groove's registry keys. See Reading Groove Web Services Registry Keys for more information. The device part of this URL consists of:

http://device:port-number

The remaining segments of the URL are provided as a return value by another operation. URLs for the GrooveFilesBase64 service can be returned by the GrooveTools Read operation or the GrooveFilesBase64 Read operation. The URL returned by GrooveTools identifies the workspace and Files tool with the service-specific data. The URL returned by GrooveFilesBase64 Read also identifies the file or folder within the Files tool. The segments of the fixed part of the URL have the following meaning:

  • /GWS/ identifies the request as a Groove Web Services request. All Groove Web Service calls must start with /GWS/.

  • Groove/ identifies that the component is implemented by Microsoft Corporation. Typically, this element would be name of the company that implements the component, but the Groove name is used to preserve compatibility with previous versions.

  • 2.0/ identifies the version of the Groove Web Service.

  • GrooveFilesBase64 identifies the service.

Typically, a SOAP client first calls the GrooveAccounts service. Because this is a top-level API and has no service-specific data, the developer can enter the HTTP Post target URL directly into the code. Most subsequent calls create an HTTP Post Target URL by combining the device and port prefix with a URL that was returned from another operation. For example, the GrooveAccounts Read operation returns URLs that allow you to call the GrooveSpaces service to read an identity's workspaces.

The terms URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) and URL (Uniform Resource Locator) have slightly different definitions. URLs are a kind of URI, which is a more general term. In this documentation, the term HTTP Post URL is used to indicate a URL that can be the target URL of a Groove Web Service operation. This HTTP Post URL has the format described in this section, starting with "http://device:port-number/GWS/Groove". When a Groove Web Service operation returns a pointer to an object, it returns a URI that starts with "/GWS/Groove". The SOAP client typically produces an HTTP Post URL by concatenating the HTTP device specification, such as "https://localhost:9080" with the URI returned by the operation. Except for the term HTTP Post URL, the terms URI and URL are used interchangeably in Groove Web Services and the documentation to describe several different kinds of identifiers.

See Also

Concepts

Groove Web Services Architecture