Business software applications use the SWIFTNet Link (SNL) application programming interface (API) to access and use SWIFTNet services. The SNL is the mandatory network interface to SWIFTNet. SWIFTNet requires SNL for all external interfaces. The SNL also includes background processes that support messaging, security, and service management functions. The SNL is incorporated into SWIFTAlliance WebStation and SWIFTAlliance Gateway (SAG).
SNL establishes a loosely coupled client/server relationship between business application components. Instead of directly invoking methods or functions, the interaction is message-oriented: structured messages are passed between client and server. A business application designed for SWIFTNet services generally consists of a set of clients and servers. The same client or the same server process can be started multiple times. Note that you cannot predict to which process instance of the same application an incoming message request will be delivered. Multiple threads within a client process can invoke the SwCall API function. A server process can have multiple threads as well; however, only one thread can invoke SwCallback. Client and server processes cannot be combined in the same process.
SNL provides a set of transport-level features designed for high availability and high throughput environments. These features include:
Load balancing
Location transparency and routing, shielding application components from the underlying transport technology
Transport-level authentication and confidentiality, packaged within SNL and provided transparently to the application
Security functions by which business application software may establish end-to-end security (user application to user application), when required.
In terms of programming at the source code level using C++ or Java, there are only two functions: SwCall and SwCallback. SwCall is used by client applications to access server applications through SWIFTNet. SwCallback is used by server applications to respond to clients through SWIFTNet.
The SwCall and SwCallback functions access the functionality of SWIFTNet by passing structured XML messages to and from SWIFTNet. At run-time, SNL includes both software libraries — the code of which executes within the same address space as business application client or server processes — and independent processes (daemons or services), which run in their own address spaces. The software libraries are accessible through the SNL APIs.
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