Web Service with attachments (SOAP with attachments) without PI

[aditya_aghor]

Hi,

Is it possible to send across file(say PDF) using ABAP web services. I know it can be done with Java using SOAP with attachments. Is something similar available for ABAP ? since if we transfer raw binary data as type string / xstring it may have a performance impact.

I could not see any option for attachments when using web service wizard from SE37 / soamanager

Note I am not using PI, this Web service would be consumed by a 3rd party tool. There is very little material available on transferring files using web service with SOAP attachments.

Regards,

Aditya

[brad_bohn]

I have not tried SOAP attachments before so unfortunately I can't address that specific question. However, I have implemented many web services that render binary PDF data for web portals without any performance issues. Maybe you should try it and detrmine whether or not you need to address the issue further?

[aditya_aghor]

Hi thanks for your input, but did you have to encode your binary data stream in say Base64 / utf-8 ? Also if you are transferring files in bulk(say 10 -100 files) how does your web service indicate end of one file or what is the best way so as to avoid performance problems.

Regards,

Aditya

[brad_bohn]

No, the data is not Base64 encoded. The data is rendered directly as an XSTRING back to the calling application. I don't transfer documents in bulk though. A typical scenario would be a sales rep viewing an account statement for a certain time period, so it's a single document usually limited to 25 pages and under...