Introduction to Web Services & SOA
References:
Web Services, A Technical Introduction, Deitel & Deitel
Building Scalable and High Performance Java Web Applications , Barish
Web Service Definition
The term "Web Services" can be confusing. It is,
unfortunately, often used in many different ways.
Compounding this confusion is term "services" that has a
different meaning than the term "Web Services."
Web Services refers to the technologies that allow for
making connections.
Services are what you connect together using Web Services.
A service is the endpoint of a connection. Also, a service
has some type of underlying computer system that supports
the connection offered.
The combination of services - internal and external to an
organization - make up a service-oriented architecture.
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
What is a Web Service?
Defined by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
A software system designed to support interoperable
machine-to-machine interaction over a network.
It has an interface described in a machine-processable
format (specifically WSDL).
Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner
prescribed by its description using SOAP messages,
typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization
in conjunction with other Webrelated standards.
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Examples of Web Services
A self-contained business task
A money withdrawal or funds deposit service for a bank
A full-fledged business process with multiple tasks
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Automated purchasing of office supplies with approvals at
different levels
An application
A complete life insurance application
A service-enabled resource
Access to a remote database containing patient medical
records
Service Oriented Architecture
A service-oriented architecture (SOA) is essentially a
collection of communicating services. The communication
can involve either simple data passing or it could involve
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
two or more services coordinating some activity. Some
means of connecting services to each other is needed.
Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The
first service-oriented architecture for many people in the
past was with the use of Java-RMI, Microsoft DCOM or
Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA
specification.
Service Oriented Architectures
Build a system by using components that provide services
Language independence
Platform independence
Location independence
Static and dynamic service discovery
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Component
Medium-grained software entity with a defined interface
Interface syntax and semantics – a contract
Application domain service (“customer”, “purchase order”, “reservation”)
more than a technical infrastructure service (“persistence”, “security”,
“messaging”)
Legacy Applications
Legacy applications can be part of an SOA by providing a
gateway front-end
Translate SOAP invocations and data to/from legacy
application’s native API and data model
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
A more robust “gateway” is an Enterprise Service Bus that
can also provide routing, formatting, brokering, etc. A
delegate pattern
Native
SOAP API
Web service Web services Legacy
client gateway application
Web Services: Technology for
SOA
HTTP for network communications
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
XML for content (data, declarations, messages, results,
etc.)
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
eXtensible Markup Language SOAP for method
invocation
Simple Object Access Protocol
WSDL for service description
Web Services Definition Language
UDDI for registering and discovering service providers
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Using Web Service Technologies
Consumer Producer
UDDI Services UDDI
Locate Publish
WSDL
Service
Invoke
C++, C#,
Java, VB,
ASP, etc.
Define
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Registration/Lookup - UDDI
Specified in XML
Definition - WSDL UDDI - Universal
Descriptor,
Invocation - SOAP
Discovery and
Transport – HTTP Integration
Operates like a registry
or name server for distributed objects.
Unlike traditional name servers, UDDI includes metadata about
each service – encourages discovery of services.
Structured like a phone book:
white pages – contact information, description
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
yellow pages – classifications about companies
green pages – technical
data relating to services
Simplifies process of
Registration/Lookup - UDDI
creating B2B
relationships and
Definition - WSDL
connecting systems to
exchange services and
Invocation - SOAP data.
Specified in XML
Transport – HTTP
WSDL – Web
Services Description Language
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Every Web service is accompanied by a WSDL document:
XML format
defines service capabilities (functionality)
location of Web service
instructions for use (methods, data types)
Similar to an IDL in CORBA or Java Interface
WSDL intended for other applications, not users
WSDL is usually generated automatically by Web service
development tools.
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Registration/Lookup - UDDI
Specified in XML
Definition - WSDL Consuming
Invocation - SOAP
a Web
Service
Transport – HTTP
The process of
invoking a web service is known as consuming a web service.
Option 1 : The consuming program (client) sends a SOAP
message to the web service. Both consumer and service use
the same WSDL interface that describes the services provided.
Option 2 : The consuming program sends a HTTP message
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
SOAP
Simple Object Access Protocol
Describes how to invoke a Web service and process its
response.
Similar to distributed object technologies (CORBA, EJB)
SOAP messages are received and interpreted by SOAP
servers which trigger Web services to perform tasks.
Consists of a set of standardized XML schemas that define
format for transmitting XML messages over a network.
Layered over HTTP – provides access across firewalls
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Typical Web Service Invocation Using
SOAP
SOAP Receiver
(server)
Convert SOAP
request message to data
SOAP type, invoke Web
Sender service Web
SOAP data type
(client) message
Service
Convert operation
result to SOAP
response message, send to
client
Web Services Platform
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Price Quote Web Service
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
uest Remote Function
double GetPriceQuote(string product)
hod> {
name>GetPriceQuote</name
> double thePrice;
parameters> // … get the price …
<product>Camera</product
> return thePrice;
/parameters> }
thod>
HTTP
Client Web
onsumer) Service
HTTP
Server
...
Reply
<price>450.00</price
>
...
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
SOAP based Web Service
Web Services publish their
location and services (WSDL
Interfaces) in a registry (UDDI).
Clients consume services using
the same WSDL Interface via a
SOAP message.
Web Services can act as both
publishers and consumers.
IntroductionSOP CourseServices
to Web Module 1& SOA Slide 2
Consuming a RESTful Web Service
In a Representation State Transfer (REST) style architecture
requests and responses are built around the transfer of
representations of resources.
REST recognizes everything as a resource and each resource
implements a standard uniform interface (typically HTTP
interface).
Resources have names and addresses (URLs)
Each resource has one or more representation (like JSON or
XML) and resource representations move across the network
usually over HTTP.
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
Consuming a REST(ful) Web Service
Create a resource for every service & uniquely identify
each resource with a logical URL
All interactions between a client and a web service are
done with simple operations. Most web interactions are
done using HTTP and just four operations:
retrieve information (HTTP GET)
create information (HTTP PUT)
update information (HTTP POST)
delete information (HTTP DELETE)
Introduction to Web Services & SOA
