A web service contains an operation for each action supported by the web service.
For example, a web service can have an operation named getcustomerid that receives a customer name and responds with the customer details. The operation input includes an element for the customer name. The operation output includes elements for customer details based on the customer name.
When you define an operation in the Developer tool, you define the operation components. An operation has the following components:
Operation input and output
The operation input defines the elements in the SOAP request for the operation. The operation output defines the elements in a SOAP response for the operation.
The operation input and the operation output can contain a header. A header receives or sends data within the SOAP message. The header defines the elements in the header of a SOAP request or SOAP response.
Operation faults
An operation fault defines the message format for error messages that might be output as the result of the operation. You can define multiple operation faults for an operation.
You must configure an operation mapping for each operation. The operation input, operation output, and each operation fault correspond to a transformation in the operation mapping.