public class Endpoint
extends Object

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 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.