Understanding Force.com Web Services
Force.com Web services allow data, logic, and metadata to be accessed from outside the
Force.com platform by any program that can communicate using SOAP messages over
HTTP.
Although the details of the Web services vary, the general procedure for writing a program
to invoke them remains constant.With a strongly typed language like Java or
C#.NET, stub code is generated from the Force.com WSDL.The program must log in to
Force.com to establish a session and can then invoke the Web service methods.
This section describes concepts that can be applied to using any Force.com Web service.
It consists of the following parts:
Basics of Force.com Web Services: Learn about the five Web services provided
by Force.com, how they are secured, and limits placed on their use.
Generating Stub Code:Walk through the process for generating Java or
C#.NET code from Force.com WSDL.
 Logging In: The first Web service call typically establishes a session with
Force.com by logging in.This session is used to make subsequent Web service calls
until it is invalidated explicitly or it expires.
 Force.com Data Types in SOAP: Understand how data types in Force.com
objects are expressed in Web services.
 Error Handling: Force.com Web services signal errors in a few ways, depending
on where the errors originate.