Intro to Web Services

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• Intro to Web Services
• August 6, 2002

Presented by David M. Rubin
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Agenda

• What are Web Services?
  (Definition)
• What are they good for? (The
  Good)
• What to watch out for? (The Bad Ugly)
• Where are they being used?

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• What are Web Services?

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Web Services Evolution
What are Web Services

• Web Services are an Architectural Evolution.

EJB
Corba
DCOM
RMI
Main Frame
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Web Evolution
What are Web Services
XML
HTML
Technology
TCP/IP
Programmability
Presentation
Connectivity
FTP, E-mail, Gopher
Innovation
Web Pages
Web Services
Browse the Web
Program the Web
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Definition
What are Web Services

• A Web Service is a URL-addressable software
  resource that performs functions (or a function).
  
• Web Services communicate using standard protocol
  known as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
• A Web Service is located by its listing in a
  Universal Discovery, Description and Integration
  (UDDI) directory.

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Definition
What are Web Services
Web Services Alphabet Soup SOAP Simple Object
Access Protocol (remote invocation) WSDL Web
Service Definition Language (service
characteristics) UDDI Universal Description,
Discovery, and Integration (directory) XKMS
XML Key Management Specification (under
development) XML Extensible Markup
Language XLANG Transactional support (under
development) ebXML (e-business XML)
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Definition
What are Web Services
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Characteristics
What are Web Services

• A Web Service is accessible over the Web.
• Web Services communicate using platform-independen
  t and language-neutral Web protocols.
• A Web Service provides an interface that can be
  called from another program.
• A Web Service is registered and can be located
  through a Web Service Registry.
• Web Services support loosely coupled connections
  between systems.

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Web Services Landscape
What are Web Services

• Web Service Environments
• Development
• Deployment
• Directory
• Infrastructure
• Patricia Seybold Group

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Web Services Landscape
What are Web Services
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Development Environment
What are Web Services

• Design and Code Web Services
• Expose Existing Resources as Web Services
• Develop new applications from Web Services
• Create Web Services interfaces from existing EAI
  connectors

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Deployment Environment
What are Web Services

• Runtime
• Security
• WSDL / XML Schema Support
• SOAP Support
• Component Deployment
• Management

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Directory Environment
What are Web Services

• Locate Web Services
• Publish Web Services
• Understand the characteristics of Web Services
  (capability, security, cost, etc.)

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Infrastructure Services
What are Web Services

• Separate Business Logic from System Functions
• Bundle Common Functionality across Web Services
• Security (Authentication, Authorization)
• Provide consistency among services

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• What are they Good For?

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Integration
What are they good for?

• In a lot of organizations, the data and logic of
  one application are basically useless to other
  applications. When an application and its data
  are isolated from other applications, we often
  say that they are in silos.
• Web Services are better at sharing data and
  functions. The result is that the silos come
  down, and previously isolated systems can talk to
  each other.

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Access
What are they good for?

• Web Services are especially good at providing
  access through different interfaces.
• A Web Service can have a dedicated client
  application, but it can also be readily accessed
  through browsers, wireless devices,
  voice-activated interfaces, and so on.
• Adding new access methods is much simpler than
  with a traditional application.

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Flexibility
What are they good for?

• One of the more important innovations in Web
  Services is machine-to-machine communications.
• This means that a Web Service can ask another Web
  Service to do something, and that Web Service can
  ask another Web Service to do something, and so
  on.
• In the future, many Web Services will really just
  be aggregations of other Web Services.

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Application Assembly
What are they good for?

• Future applications will be assembled from a
  diverse group of web services, aggregating
  functionality.
• Reusability is extended to the execution level,
  versus reusability from just the design and
  construction level.

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Commentary

• Web Services provide a common standard for the
  implementation of an interface.
• A COMPONENT is an Object that learned its lesson
• A WEB SERVICE is a Component that learned its
  lesson.

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• What to Watch Out For!

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Changing Standards
What to watch out for?

• Things are moving very quickly. By the time you
  implement any form of Web Services the
  specification of standards will have already
  evolved.
• The technology hasn't yet caught up to the
  business vision. Most software is less than six
  months old, and a lot of it isn't going to work.
• Implementation
• Education
• Standards Update

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Security
What to watch out for?

• Theres currently no cross technology or cross
  platform security model for Web Services
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Encryption
• Digital Signatures

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Transactions
What to watch out for?

• Theres currently no cross technology or cross
  platform transaction model for Web Services
• Commit
• Rollback
• 2 Phase

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Vendor Extension
What to watch out for?

• Vendors are augmenting their Web Service
  offerings with proprietary extensions.
• Vendor implementation and sale of products before
  any ratification of the standards their products
  are implementing.

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• Whos Using Web Services!

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Dollar Rental Car
• Using Web Services, Dollar Rent A Car created an
  interface to expose its existing mainframe-based
  reservation system for access by existing and
  potential business partners.
• So far, this capability has resulted in millions
  of additional rate requests, thousands of new
  reservations, millions of dollars in additional
  revenue and significant transaction fee savings.

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Unishippers Salt Lake City
• System under development designed with an
  Architecture that leverages Web Services
  internally.
• This creates a Flexible platform for expansion
  beyond their franchise walls (Partners,
  Customers, Etc.) in future project phases.

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Zagat Survey
• Using Web Services to Expose the functionality of
  its systems.
• Zagat Survey has been able to reduce the costs
  associated with providing monthly content updates
  to its Internet partners.
• In addition, Zagat is positioned to increase the
  number of options that can offer to partners
  interested in licensing the company's content
  (PDA, Cell Phones, Directory Services, Etc.).

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Colorado Department of Agriculture
• Used Web Services to develop technology needed to
  collate and distribute time-sensitive information
• Specifically, they used Web Services to get data
  out of a legacy Macintosh system which was
  inefficient and slow
• Using Web Services, they integrated the Macintosh
  data with a Microsoft SQL Server database, so it
  can be served to anyone via a browser.

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Government of Singapore
• The Public eServices Infrastructure (PSi) of
  Singapore allows different government agencies to
  share components.
• These include payment gateways, electronic data
  exchange, authentication and other security
  features
• The result has reducing both incremental costs
  and the time needed for design and development of
  systems.

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Where are Web Services being used?

• Kansas Department of Human Resources
• Developed a Web Services based system to
  streamline unemployment claims processing.
• By using Web Services they were able to leverage
  and integrate shrink wrapped software with
  custom screens to develop and deploy a solution
  very quickly.
• KDHR officials estimate that 20 to 30 percent of
  all claims are now filed over the Internet.

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Questions
?