Common scenarios in Web Services of SharePoint 2007

Following are the common Web Services available in a SharePoint 2007. The physical location of these files is "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ISAPI"



Administration Service             http:///_vti_adm/admin.asmx 
Alerts Service                          http:///_vti_bin/alerts.asmx 
Document Workspace Service   http:///_vti_bin/dws.asmx 
Forms Service                          http:///_vti_bin/forms.asmx 
Imaging Service                        http:///_vti_bin/imaging.asmx 
List Data Retrieval Service        http:///_vti_bin/dspsts.asmx 
Lists Service                            http:///_vti_bin/lists.asmx 
Meetings Service                      http:///_vti_bin/meetings.asmx 
Permissions Service                  http:///_vti_bin/permissions.asmx 
Site Data Service                      http:///_vti_bin/sitedata.asmx 
Site Service                             http:///_vti_bin/sites.asmx 
Users and Groups Service           http:///_vti_bin/usergroup.asmx 
Versions Service                       http:///_vti_bin/versions.asmx 
Views Service                          http:///_vti_bin/views.asmx 
Web Part Pages Service            http:///_vti_bin/webpartpages.asmx 
Webs Service                           http:///_vti_bin/webs.asmx 





Setting the web service user credentials
The SharePoint web services only accept calls from existing SharePoint users and do also enforce access security. Import the System.Net namespace into your project and then use the NetworkCredential class to set the user credential to use for the web service call. Here is a code snippet:


public static XmlNode VersionsGetVersions(string SharePointHost, string UserName,
                              string Password, string Domain, string FileName)
{
// proxy object to call the Versions web service
Versions.Versions VersionsService = new Versions.Versions();


// the user credentials to use
VersionsService.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(UserName, Password,
Domain);
VersionsService.Url = SharePointHost + “_vti_bin/Versions.asmx”;


// gets the file versions
XmlNode Result = VersionsService.GetVersions(FileName);


// dispose the web service object
VersionsService.Dispose();
return Result;
}


Following are some real life example of using SharePoint Web Services:



Example 1:  Get the collection of SharePoint lists, fields and views 
In the first example we want to get the collection of SharePoint lists. For each list we want to get all the defined list fields (fields you can use to store information) and finally all views associated with the list. Here are the web methods to call:


1) On the Lists web service call the GetListCollection() web method to get the collection of all SharePoint lists. This returns an XML document with all SharePoint lists. 
2) Next you run the “//sp:List” XPath query to get all matching List nodes. The Title attribute of each matching node contains the name of the SharePoint list. 
3) For each SharePoint list we call the GetList() web method on the Lists web service, passing along the list name. This returns a XML document with detailed information about the list including the list of fields. 
4) Next you run the “//sp:Field” XPath query to get all the matching Field nodes. The Name attribute contains the field name. 
5) For each SharePoint list we call the GetViewCollction() web method on the Views web service, passing along again the list name. This returns a XML document listing all views for the list. 
6) Finally you run the “//sp:View” XPath query to get all the matching View nodes. The Name attribute contains the name of the view. 


Example 2:  Get the list of users and site-groups
In this example we want to get the list of site users and to which site group each user belongs. We also want to get the list of site groups and which users belong to each site group.


1) On the Users-and-Groups web service we call the GetUserCollectionFromWeb() web method. This returns an XML document with all the site users. 
2) Next you run the “//d:User” XPath query to get all the matching User nodes. The Name attribute contains the user name and the LoginName attribute the user's login name. 
3) For each user we call the GetRoleCollectionFromUser() web method on the Users-and-Groups web service passing along the user's login name. This returns a XML document with all the site groups the user belongs to. 
4) Next you run the “//d:Role” XPath query to get all the matching Role nodes. The Name attribute contains the site group name. 
5) To get the list of site groups call the GetRoleCollectionFromWeb() web method on the Users-and-Groups web service. This returns an XML document with all site groups. 
6) Next you run again the “//d:Role” XPath query to get all the matching Role nodes. The Name attribute contains the site group name. 
7) Finally call for each site group the GetUserCollectionFromRole() web method on the Users-and-Groups web service passing along the site group name. This returns an XML document with all the users belonging to this site group. 
8) Next you run again the “//d:User” XPath query to get all the matching User nodes. The Name attribute contains the user name and the LoginName attribute the user's login name. 


Example 3:  Get the list of sites, site-templates and list-templates
With the last example we want to get a list of all sites in the site collection. We want to get for the site collection the list of site templates. Additionally we want for each site the list of list templates.


1) First we call the GetAllSubWebCollection() web method on the Webs web service. This returns an XML document with all sites in the site collection. 
2) Next run the “//sp:Web” XPath query to return all matching Web nodes. The Url attribute contains the absolute URL for the site. 
3) Then we call the GetSiteTemplates() web method on the Sites web service. This returns an array of available site templates in the site collection, which is an array of the type Sites.Templates. The attached sample application converts all structures to an XML document using reflection, so you can run XPath queries against it (see the method SharePoint.SitesGetSiteTemplates()). 
4) Next run the “//SharePointServices.Sites.Templates” XPath query which returns all matching template nodes. The Title attribute contains the template title and the Name attribute the SharePoint template name. 
5) For each site we call the GetListTemplates() web
method on the Webs web service. Before calling the web service object you need to set the URL to the site URL (returned by GetAllSubWebCollection()). This way we make sure that the call is to the site itself and returns the list templates of that site. This returns an XML document with all list templates. 
6) To finish run the “//sp:SiteTemplate” XPath query to return all matching SiteTemplate nodes. The DisplayName attribute contains the name of the list template.





Thank you,
Soumyendra