Consume SOAP Service with COM Component

Sure there is a way to send a request to SOAP service "manually" by writing down a XML file and posting it to server as HTTP POST like this.

This is however a hard way, you need to handle such a complex structures like:

<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=""http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"" 
xmlns:fruit=""http://fabrikam.net""><soap:Header/><soap:Body>
<fruit:findBananasbyId><Id>" & bananaId & /Id></fruit:findBananasById></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>"

and believe me, that is just a beginning. :)

On the other side, it is very simple to create a client application to consume a SOAP service in Visual Studio. Take a look for example at this link.

Now you can create a .NET library (DLL) but how to use it from a VBS?

The answer is - the DLL need to be a COM object!

Assumed we have such a COM-DLL, we can easily use it:

Dim oComSoap
Set oComSoap = CreateObject("myComInterface")
oComSoap.SendRequest

There are certainly two points / pitfalls:

1. The .NET WCF Application has an app.config looking like this:
   XML

   < system.serviceModel >
           < bindings >
             < wsHttpBinding >
                  < binding name = "WSHttpBinding_PurchaseInvoiceService" />
             </ wsHttpBinding >
           </ bindings >
           < client >
             < endpoint address = 
             "http://ax5-w8r2-01.contoso.com/MicrosoftDynamicsAXAif50/purchaseinvoiceservice.svc"
                     binding = "wsHttpBinding" 
                     bindingConfiguration = "WSHttpBinding_PurchaseInvoiceService"
                     contract = "PurchaseInvoiceService.PurchaseInvoiceService" 
                     name = "WSHttpBinding_PurchaseInvoiceService" >
                 < identity >  
                   < userPrincipalName value = "Administrator@contoso.com" />
                 </ identity >
             </ endpoint >
           </ client >
   </ system.serviceModel >

   Your stand-alone DLL makes no use of app.config and shall replace it by creating an according class:

   C#

   PurchaseInvoiceServiceClient _oClient;
   
   WSHttpBinding oBinding = new WSHttpBinding();
   oBinding.Name = "WSHttpBinding_PurchaseInvoiceService";     
   string strEndPoint = 
   "http://ax5-w8r2-01.contoso.com/MicrosoftDynamicsAXAif50/purchaseinvoiceservice.svc";
   EndpointAddress oEndPoint = new EndpointAddress(strEndPoint);
   _oClient = new PurchaseInvoiceServiceClient(oBinding, oEndPoint);

2. The .NET WCF Application marks an entry point / the main function as [STAThread] that means, the COM threading model for an application is single-threaded apartment (STA).

   This is what you need to do for every SOAP interface of your DLL:

   C#

   [STAThread]
   public bool SendRequest()

Points of Interest

• Integrating Web Services and COM Components
• SOAP Web Services Query in VBScript