6.0

VMware, Inc. 7
1
The VMware vSphere
®
Web Services SDK includes all the components necessary to work with the
VMware vSphere API, including WSDL files, sample code, and libraries. The
vSphere Web Services SDK facilitates development of client applications that target the VMware vSphere API.
With the vSphere Web Services SDK, developers can create client applications to manage, monitor, and
maintain VMware vSphere components, as deployed on VMware
®
VMware vSphere
®
ESX
®
, ESXi™, and
VMware
®
vCenter™ Server systems.
This vSphere Web Services SDK Programming Guide explains how to set up the development environment to
create new applications with Java and the Microsoft .NET environment, using the C# programming language.
This guide also includes information about running the sample applications included with the vSphere Web
Services SDK.
This chapter includes these topics:
 “Knowledge Required for Using the vSphere Web Services SDK” on page 7
 “Programming Languages Supported by the vSphere Web Services SDK” on page 8
 “Types of Applications That You Can Build Using This SDK” on page 8
 “vSphere Web Services SDK Package Contents” on page 9
 “SDK Versions and VMware vSphere Product Compatibility” on page 10
Knowledge Required for Using the vSphere Web Services SDK
Developing applications with the vSphere Web Services SDK requires expertise with Java, C#, or another
programming language. You must also understand the following Web services programming concepts:
 Web services technology provides operations, also known as methods in the context of client applications.
Using the vSphere Web Services SDK and your choice of programming language, you can create client
applications that invoke these operations to perform the full range of server-side management and
monitoring tasks.
 The Web services API is defined in Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files. The WSDL files are
used by client-side Web-services utilities to create proxy code (stubs) that client applications use to
interact with the server.
 Client applications invoke operations by calling proxy interface methods. The client proxy encodes an
operation invocation into a SOAP message and sends it to the server. Simple Object Access Protocol
(SOAP) is a programming-language neutral XML format. SOAP message translation is transparent to the
developer.
 Communications between client and server occur over HTTP or HTTPS. HTTPS is a secure form of HTTP
that uses SSL to encrypt client-server communications. The default is HTTPS, but you can configure the
VMware vSphere Web server to support HTTP. (See “Modifying Server Configurations to Support HTTP”
on page 27.)
About the vSphere Web Services SDK
1