Supported Types of Input and Output for XML and JSON Messages

When using the JSON and XML message formats with RESTful web service endpoints, the type and format of inputs and outputs you can use is limited compared to the features of SOAP endpoints. Stored processes can accept two types of input: prompts and data sources. They can produce three types of output: output parameters, data targets, and packages. Prompts enable you to supply simple parameters for stored process execution. The SAS prompting framework enables you to create prompt definitions that describe the type and format of your stored process's input parameters. When you invoke a web service, the prompting framework validates the values that you supplied for the stored process prompts. The prompting framework translates these values into a macro variable that can be used in your stored process. Data sources enable you to supply arbitrary streams of data to your stored process to be processed. These data streams can be text such as XML or raw binary content. The data that you supply in a data source is streamed to a fileref in your stored process. Output parameters contain the values from macro variables from your stored process after it is finished running. This enables you to return simple values from your stored process. Data targets are like data sources in that they are streams of arbitrary data. However, data targets are produced by the stored process. Stored processes can use the SAS Publishing Framework to create a package during stored process execution. A package is a collection of assets that can be returned to the stored process client (in the case of SAS BI Web Services, the client is the web service client). Packages can contain binary and textual data and are a convenient way to package complex reports that contain multiple images and text or HTML content produced by SAS. If a stored process returns a package, that package can be returned to the web service client as a list of entries and the contents of those entries.

<soapenv:Envelope
 xmlns:soapenv=
   "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
 xmlns:biw=
   "http://www.sas.com/xml/namespace/biwebservices">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <biw:addfloats>
         <biw:parameters>
            <biw:num1>2.3</biw:num1>
            <biw:num2>4.2</biw:num2>
         </biw:parameters>
      </biw:addfloats>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

<addfloats>
   <parameters>
      <num1>2.3</num1>
      <num2>4.2</num2>
   </parameters>
</addfloats>

num1=2.0&num2=3.5

{
  "outputParameters":
  {
    "Sum": "5.5"
  }
}