Overview of Endpoints on Applications
In Application Designer and System Designer, you can represent or define behavior that an application provides or consumes by adding endpoints. For information about endpoints on systems, see Overview of Endpoints on Application Systems.
Endpoints also allow you to accomplish the following tasks:
Configure communication pathways between applications.
Specify constraints that limit the types of logical server endpoints to which you can bind application endpoints.
Note
When you define and evaluate deployment for a system that contains applications as members, you must bind those applications' endpoints to logical server endpoints. However, defining such constraints might prevent you from binding the application to a logical server that might otherwise support it when you define deployment.
Define operations for .NET Web Service provider endpoints.
For more information, see the following topics:
The following sections contain more information about application endpoints:
Endpoints on Applications
Adding Endpoints to Applications
Endpoints on Applications
An application endpoint is based on an abstract definition, such as a Web service, and can be either a "provider" or "consumer" endpoint. A provider endpoint identifies an addressable location that provides a service. The provider endpoint represents this service as a small solid shape on the application shape.
When you connect a provider endpoint to an application, a consumer endpoint appears on that application. Visual Studio configures the consumer endpoint with the address of the provider endpoint and connects it to the provider endpoint. The consumer endpoint specifies the requirement for that application to use that service. The consumer endpoint represents this requirement as a small hollow shape on the application shape. The endpoint's shape, color, and icon help identify the endpoint's type.
On the application diagram, connections represent how to configure consumer endpoints in the development environment. On system diagrams, connections represent how to configure consumer endpoints in the deployment environment.
For more information, see the following topics:
The following table describes predefined endpoint types that can appear on applications.
Application endpoint type |
Description |
|---|---|
Database consumer endpoint |
Represents a configurable connection point to a database. A database consumer endpoint appears on an application when you connect the application to a database provider endpoint. A database consumer endpoint typically manifests itself in an implemented application as a specifically named database connection string in the application configuration file. For more information, see How to: Configure Connections to External Databases. |
Database provider endpoint |
Represents an exposed connection point on a database. By default, an external database includes a single database provider endpoint. |
Generic consumer endpoint |
Represents a connection point to a service of a nonspecific type. A generic consumer endpoint appears on an application when you connect the application to a generic provider endpoint. |
Generic provider endpoint |
Represents a connection point for services of a nonspecific type. You can add new generic provider endpoints to applications of any type. |
Web content consumer endpoint |
Represents a client connection point to Web content, such as HTML files or Active Server Pages (ASP). A Web content consumer endpoint appears on an application when you connect the application to a Web content provider endpoint. |
Web content provider endpoint |
Represents a connection point at which Web content, such as HTML files or Active Server Pages (ASP), is exposed. By default, an ASP.NET application created from the ASP.NETWebApplication application type includes a single Web content provider endpoint. You can also add new Web content provider endpoints to ASP.NET applications. |
.NET Web Service consumer endpoint |
Represents a connection point to a .NET Web service. A Web service consumer endpoint appears on an application when you connect the application to a Web service provider endpoint. |
.NET Web Service provider endpoint |
Represents a connection point for a .NET Web service. By default, an ASP.NET Web application created from the ASP.NETWebService application type includes a .NET Web Service provider endpoint. You can also add new .NET Web Service provider endpoints to ASP.NET applications or create them from WSDL or .disco files. An external Web service or BizTalk Web service application can have only a single Web service provider endpoint. For more information, see Overview of ASP.NET Applications on Application Diagrams. |
Adding Endpoints to Applications
When you add an application to the application diagram or to a system diagram, that new application might have one, multiple, or no default provider endpoints. The number and types of endpoints depends on the application prototype you choose and the type of application that you create from that prototype. However, you can add provider endpoints to an application, depending on the endpoint type and whether the application type supports it.
For example, you can add an ASP.NET application by dragging the ASP.NETWebApplication application type from the Toolbox to the application diagram or to a system diagram. This action creates an ASP.NET application with a default Web content provider endpoint instead of a .NET Web service provider endpoint. You can then add a new .NET Web service provider endpoint because ASP.NET applications also support that endpoint type.
Tip
As a best practice for Web service endpoints, change the binding namespace from its default value ("http://tempuri.org").
You can add consumer endpoints to an application by connecting that application to provider endpoints on other applications. You can also copy and paste other consumer endpoints. For example, Microsoft Windows and Office applications do not have default endpoints. However, you can connect a Windows or Office application to an application with a provider endpoint and create the corresponding consumer endpoint.
Note
When you add an endpoint to an application definition on the application diagram, that endpoint also appears on any uses of that definition as members on systems diagrams that reference (as members of a system). In turn, when you add an endpoint to a member of a system, the endpoint appears on the member's underlying definition. In addition, the endpoint appears on other system members with the same definition.
For more information, see the following topics:
You can also reuse endpoints that you have already configured to define new ones and to extend the types of endpoints you can use. You can perform this task by creating prototypes from those endpoints. For more information, see How to: Create Custom Prototypes from Configured Applications and Endpoints.
On ASP.NET applications, you can create .NET Web Service provider endpoints from WSDL or .disco files. For more information, see Web Service Endpoints Based on WSDL Files.
See Also
Tasks
Walkthrough: Defining Applications on Application Diagrams