Visual Basic Demo Client


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Visual Basic

XMethods

Demo Services
Visual Basic Demo Client

This page contains instructions for downloading and running a Visual Basic client against the Quotation Service running on our servers.

Ensure that you have Internet Explorer 5.5 or later (this will ensure you have the correct version of the HTTP connector libraries) - to view your IE version simply open IE and choose Help/About - if you have a prior version then IE can be downloaded free of charge from Microsoft's IE download page.

Ensure that you have Microsoft Installer (MSI) functionality (which allows you to run the SOAP toolkit installer) - this comes standard with Windows XP, 2000 and Windows Me so users of these systems will not need to do anything. If you are using Windows NT then download MSI 1.1+ for NT. If you are using Win95 or Win98 then download MSI 1.1+ for Win9x.

Install the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit (version 2.0 SP2 or later) which will give the client you are about to download the appropriate DLLs for communicating in SOAP. To do this go to the MS SOAP Toolkit download area and choose the download entitled "SoapToolkit", read and accept the license agreement (if you are happy with the terms) and save the file to your machine. You should now have a file called soaptoolkit20.exe or soapsdk.exe. This is a self-extracting executable that exploits MSI functionality. Run it and follow the onscreen instructions to install the toolkit. When asked, opt for the COMPLETE install.

Install the Visual Basic demo client for Soapuser.com's Quotation Service. To do this simply download the VB Demo Client Zip File, extract it to the directory of your choice, run the setup.exe and follow the on-screen instructions, accepting all defaults.

Run the demo client by choosing : Start / Programs / SOAPUSER.COM Demo / Quotation Service VB Demo. Hitting the "Get All Quotations" button should result in the entire quotation list being retrieved from our server using the SOAP protocol and displayed on your screen. Hit the "Help" button for further instructions.

Notes

If you want to run the client against your own server as set up in the Server-Side Tutorial simply change the root of the URL fromservices.xmethods.net to localhost:8080.

[ Nicholas Quaine ]