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We are back to the window where the input parameters can be specified and the service

endpoint be selected as shown in Figure 7-63. The list of service endpoints now contains the

one we just added and we select that one and continue to invoke the service.

Figure 7-63 Invoking service with alternative endpoint

Specifying alternative service endpoints can be very useful for a number of reasons. One of

the reasons it is often done is to send the connection through a TCP/IP monitor for

troubleshooting.

7.4.5 TCP/IP Monitor

The IBM Rational Application Developer IDE, as well as other IBM development IDEs, comes

with a nice troubleshooting tool called

TCP/IP Monitor. This tool acts as a proxy between two

TCP/IP endpoints and records the messages being exchanged. While the Web Service

Explorer allows you to see the SOAP messages as well, the TCP/IP monitor allows you to do

the same with any application so you can troubleshoot your own applications instead of

simulating a service client in the Web Service Explorer.

When we put these examples together we wanted to make sure that the exchanged

messages were correct and the namespaces were used properly. To accomplish this, we

utilized the TCP/IP Monitor to check the exchanged messages and verified that they indeed

were correct.

164 z/TPF and WebSphere Application Server in a Service Oriented Architecture

The TCP/IP Monitor is rather well hidden. To start it, you have to select Other from the

Window menu, to bring up a list of all available IDE views, as shown in Figure 7-64.

Figure 7-64 Opening the list of all available IDE windows

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In the list of available views you have to expand the Debug section, which reveals the TCP/IP

Monitor item. Select it to open it as shown in Figure 7-65.

Figure 7-65 Selecting the TCP/IP Monitor view

The first time the TCP/IP Monitor view opens, it is most likely in a rather useless area of the

IDE, the narrow area to the right of the main editing window as shown in Figure 7-66.

If you are somewhat familiar with the Eclipse based development IDEs, you know that you

can drag any view from one area to another. Because of the horizontal layout of the TCP/IP

Monitor view, it makes most sense to place its view on the stack of views below the main

editing window.

166 z/TPF and WebSphere Application Server in a Service Oriented Architecture

Figure 7-66 The TCP/IP Monitor view

The TCP/IP Monitor must be set up before it can be used. The way it works is that the TCP/IP

Monitor listens on a specified local port and then forwards the received data to the configured

IP address and port. The first step therefore is to select the Properties configuration window

from the TCP/IP Monitor view as shown in Figure 7-67.

Figure 7-67 Opening the configuration window

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The configuration window lists all the currently configured and activated port configurations.

Initially the list is empty so we add a new port definition as shown in Figure 7-68.

Figure 7-68 Current port configuration

For this exercise we specify the local listening port to be 80 and the forwarding destination to

be our z/TPF host on port 80 as well, as shown in Figure 7-69.

Figure 7-69 Adding a new port definition

The list now contains our new port definition but it is not active until we start it, as shown in

Figure 7-70.

Figure 7-70 Starting a port definition