Bindings

The current version of Veloconnect recognizes four bindings:

• URL

• URL-S

• XML-POST

• XML-POST-S

Rule: Default URL

A Veloconnect-compliant server can be accessed via a specified, default URL. This is communicated, together with additional access parameters such as user name and password, to the customer (buyer). The GetProfile operation is processed at the default URL. Different URLs may be set for all other operations; this information is contained in the response to a GetProfile-Request.

Rule: http protocol (client)

The client fully implements the HTTP/1.1 Protocol (e.g. by using a standard library). The message delivered by the server is handled according to this specification only if transmission was successfully completed according to the HTTP protocol. If the server proposes re-direction (HTTP status code 3xx), it should be followed.

Rule: URL binding

In a URL binding, a request is serialized as a parameter sequence encoded as a string according to the media type application/x-www-form-urlencoded. How a request is to be considered as a sequence of parameters is specified in each operation. Parameter version can be used in addition to operation-specific parameters. To perform an operation, the client either uses the GET method to access the URL address, which then comprises a concatenation of the URL associated with the operation, the character "?" and the encoded parameters, or the client uses the POST method to transfer the encoded parameters to the URL associated with the operation. The choice between GET and POST is left to the client, i.e. the server must implement both variants when realizing the URL binding. The response is serialized as an XML file, and returned as application/xml content type. The URL-S binding differs from the URL binding only in that the "HTTP over TLS protocol" (https, rfc 2818) is used instead of HTTP/1.1 for transmission.

Rule: XML-POST binding

The XML-POST binding serializes the request and the response as an XML file, and transmits it as content type application/xml. The request uses the POST method of the HTTP/1.1 protocol. The XML-POST-S binding differs from XML-POST only in that the https protocol is used instead of http for transmission.