How is QMWISe implemented?
Applies to the following products:
Questionmark OnDemand
Questionmark Perception
Questionmark OnPremise
Applies to the following Perception versions:
Perception 5.7
QMWISe is a consistent mechanism that maps to Perception's existing functionality. This enables it to:
- Use all of the routines that access the database within a Perception shared repository to support simple web service methods that use these routines directly, or complex web service methods that are built from several such routines
- Generate URLs that enable the Questionmark Presentation Layer for Assessments to run for specified participants
- Generate URLs that enable administrators to log in to Enterprise Manager and use its facilities
This section covers:
- The key features of the web service implementation
- The platforms supported by the web service implementation
- The data model for the web service implementation
- The service definition of the web service implementation
Key features
The key features of the QMWISe architecture are that it is:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Platform independent | The use of HTTP as the mechanism for exchanging messages means that only the QMWISe service itself can ever be limited to particular platforms, the users of the web service methods can be on almost any platform (see the platforms supported section) |
| Consistent in its data model | Data is passed to and from QMWISe consistently as explained in section about the data model |
| Easily extensible | New methods can easily be added to the web service without affecting existing applications, because QMWISe is based on a web service definition |
| Forward compatible | Each web service method is fixed, and new functionality will only be added to QMWISe by adding new ones and updating the web service definition accordingly |
| Easy to use | A wide variety of tools exist for various platforms that allow developers to use the web service methods easily and without having to have a detailed knowledge of SOAP or XML |
| Secure | The security features available with QMWISe are fully explained in the section about security |
Platform support
QMWISe is implemented as a web service that runs on the following platforms:
| Perception Version 5.1+ |
|---|
|
It provides its services by processing request messages that are transmitted to it via HTTP, and returns response message to their sender via HTTP.
The application program that sends the requests needs only to be capable of sending and receiving HTTP messages over the web, which means that it can run on virtually any platform and location.