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Parallels Agent API

Parallels Agent provides two APIs that you can use to create client applications:

XML API

The XML API is a set of rules by which clients can exchange information with and request actions from Agent. The XML API protocol is based on XML messages. A message is an XML document composed of XML elements that specify the request or response parameters. Each message is defined using the XML Schema 1.0 standard.

With XML API, you compose an XML request in accordance with the schema and send it to Agent using SSL or other supported protocol. Agent processes the request, takes the appropriate action, and sends back an XML response containing the data that resulted from the request. Your application then parses the received XML to extract the data.

The XML API is described in detail in the Using XML API chapter.

SOAP API

The Parallels Agent SOAP API is a Web service based on the SOAP 1.1 and WSDL 1.1 standards. With SOAP API, you build your client applications using one of the SOAP clients that can access a Web service. This can be a SOAP client that can generate proxy classes from the provided WSDL documents, such as Visual Studio .NET. You can also create your programs using one of the scripting languages with SOAP support, such as Perl and SOAP::Lite.

You make an API call by invoking a proxy class method in a language native format. Transparently to the programmer, the SOAP client transforms the method invocation into a SOAP message and sends it to Agent over HTTPS. Agent processes the message, takes the appropriate action, and sends a response (also a SOAP message) containing the data back to the SOAP client. The client creates an appropriate object (an instance of a class) and populates it with the data from the received SOAP message. You then extract the data from the object as you usually do in the programming language that you are using.

The SOAP API is described in detail in the Using SOAP API chapter.

Both the SOAP API and the XML API share the same Schema, so they essentially provide the same functionality. The basic format of the input and output data is also the same in both APIs. The difference is as follows:

The XML Schema on which both APIs are based is described in detail in the Parallels Agent XML API Reference guide, which is a companion to this book. You can use it as a reference when programming with either API.

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