Class Endpoint

An opaque representation of an application endpoint. Typically, an Endpoint object represents a business entity, but it may represent a party of any sort. Conceptually, an Endpoint object is the mapping of a logical name (example, a URI) to a physical location, such as a URL.

For messaging using a provider that supports profiles, an application does not need to specify an endpoint when it sends a message because destination information will be contained in the profile-specific header. However, for point-to-point plain SOAP messaging, an application must supply an Endpoint object to the SOAPConnection method call to indicate the intended destination for the message. The subclass {@link URLEndpoint URLEndpoint} can be used when an application wants to send a message directly to a remote party without using a messaging provider.

The default identification for an Endpoint object is a URI. This defines what JAXM messaging providers need to support at minimum for identification of destinations. A messaging provider needs to be configured using a deployment-specific mechanism with mappings from an endpoint to the physical details of that endpoint.

Endpoint objects can be created using the constructor, or they can be looked up in a naming service. The latter is more flexible because logical identifiers or even other naming schemes (such as DUNS numbers) can be bound and rebound to specific URIs.