SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup

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SOA-24 WS-AlphabetSoup

• Making sense of SOA standards

Jaime Meritt
Director of Technology
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Goals for Today

• Web services protocols and specifications have
  grown in number and complexity over the last
  decade
• How do you know what they all do?
• How do you know which are the important ones for
  you?
• Too many combinations cognitive overload for
  developers
• How do you make sense of todays Web services and
  turn WS-AlphabetSoup into WS-WorldPeace?
• A comprehensive, yet comprehensible overview of
  the SOA standards

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The SOA Promise
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The Need for SOA Standards
Great! Whats the catch?
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The WS-AlphabetSoup
The Fundamentals - XML - SOAP - XSD -
WSDL - JMS - WS-Addressing - HTTP -
WS-Policy
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The WS-AlphabetSoup
The Qualities of Service - WS-Security
- WS-Coordination -
WS-ReliableMessaging -
WS-SecureConversation - WS-AtomicTransaction
- WS-Trust - WS-BusinessActivity -
WS-Federation
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The WS-AlphabetSoup

• The Process Layer
• BPEL
• BPM
• - XPDL

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Two Standards are Better than One

• Web service standards are layered and extensible
• Individual standards are often simple, complexity
  is in combination
• Each endpoint binds a particular set of standards
  to an access point
• Web Services may expose a variety of endpoints to
  maximize reuse
• Clients choose the optimal communications
  mechanism
• Choice is often dictated by the platform in use

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Fundamentals Transport

• HTTP most widely deployed protocol for Internet
  communications
• Messages are standard MIME
• Multipart messages facilitate attachments
• Intra-enterprise is a mix of protocols beyond
  HTTP
• MOM Providers
• SMTP
• FTP
• Transport security and reliability mechanisms can
  be used as an alternative to SOA standards
• Often provides performance advantages
• Reduces the reusability of components

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Fundamentals Data Format

• XML
• Provides a neutral representation of data
• Supported across all platforms and programming
  environments
• XML Schema
• Syntax and structural rules
• Object-oriented language with rich extensibility

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Fundamentals Data Format

• Security
• XML Encryption for privacy
• XML Digital Signature for integrity
• Query and Transformation
• XPath allows simple indexing into a document
• XSLT provides transformation from one format to
  another
• XQuery provides rich capabilities to inquire into
  collections of documents

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Fundamentals Messaging

• SOAP
• Enveloping structure to identify header and body
  contents
• Higher level protocols build on header
  extensibility
• WS-Addressing
• To, from, reply, fault, action
• Can be used for asynchronous server to server
  interactions
• Attachments and MTOM
• Arbitrary payload optimized for binary data
• Integrates content into XML infoset

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Fundamentals Metadata

• Web Services Description Language
• Define the logical interface of a service in
  terms of messages and operations
• Doc/literal vs. RPC/encoded
• Specifies endpoint addresses and policy
• WSDL compilers hide the complexity from clients

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Fundamentals Metadata

• WS-Policy Framework
• Attach constraints and interaction options to
  services
• Defines a set of requirements that have to be met
  in order to consume a web service
• Individual dialects specify the actual policy
  assertions
• UDDI
• A catalog of services think LDAP for WS
• Browsing and query interfaces
• Synchronization between registries
• Subscriptions to change notifications

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Qualities of Service Security

• WS-Security
• Integrates authentication, integrity, and
  encryption into SOAP
• Security profiles support a wide array of
  authentication mechanisms Username/Password,
  X509 certificates, Transport
• SecurityPolicy defines specific requirements
• Emerging
• WS-SecureConversation to optimize encryption
• SAML for single-sign-on

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Qualities of Service Reliability
WS-ReliableMessaging

• Allows separation of transport from reliability
• Client and server buffer messages
• Message ordering and acknowledgement
• Peer to peer model
• Widely supported but not yet widely deployed

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Qualities of Service Transactions

• WS-Transaction
• Base standard establishes the role of a
  coordinator and completion protocols
• WS-AtomicTransaction is the next XA ?
• Business Activity provides a compensating model
• The Microsoft Factor
• BPEL Transactions are more prevalent in the
  ecosystem
• What is BPEL?

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The Process Layer
Two different forms of process management

• BPEL ? BPM
• Should really be Service Orchestration Language!

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The Process Layer BPM
What is the impact on the business if I automate
three steps?

• Model the whole, real business process, not just
  the IT systems (people, roles, scheduling, cost)
  to optimize the business
• User business analyst or other business user
• Requires minimal knowledge of IT systems
• Tools for business-level simulation, monitoring,
  optimization
• Few standards due to wide spectrum of offerings
• See Lombardi presentation for more information

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The Process Layer BPEL
How do I connect and orchestrate IT systems?

• Compose processes out of existing services and
  processes
• Correlate events within and across running
  processes
• Control flow conditionals, loops, delays, scoped
  state
• Manage concurrent (often long-running) service
  interactions
• Compensate for completed activities in the event
  of failure

COMPOSED SERVICES
SERVICES
SERVICES
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Profiles Standards for Standards

• How have others tried to add structure to this
  chaos?
• WS-I provides a least common denominator for
  interoperability
• Widely supported but sometimes insufficient
• Platforms are the new standards
• WCF 3.5 sets the bar

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What if I wasnt listening?
Progress infrastructure removes the rocket science

• Progress SOA Portfolio
• ESB to normalize disparate communications
  protocols to establish a secure and reliable
  foundation
• Actional to implement and enforce security
  policies across a heterogeneous infrastructure
• Rich SOA standards support across portfolio
• Progress OpenEdge
• Expose business applications to a variety of
  consumers over standard web services protocols
• Integration with Sonic ESB and SonicMQ allows
  for extended standards support from OE

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In Summary
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Relevant Exchange Sessions

• SOA-8 BPM What Is It and How Can I Use It
  with SOA to Maximize IT and Business Success?
• SOA-11 Common Applications of Sonic ESB
• SOA-26 Extending your application with OpenEdge
  Web services
• SOA-27 Practical Approaches for Implementing a
  Service Oriented Architecture
• SOA-39 Securing Your SOA Mitigating Security
  Risks of a De-coupled Infrastructure

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For More Information, go to

• Wikipedia is a great source for high level
  overviews
• Countless articles and many books are available
  for detailed coverage. For Java Geeks
• Java Web Services. David Chappell and Tyler
  Jewell, OReilly, March 2002, ISBN 0596002696.
• Building Web Services in Java Making Sense of
  XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. Steve Graham, Doug
  Davis, Simeon Simeonov, and Glen Daniels , Sams,
  July 2004, ISBN 0672326418

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?
Questions
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Thank You
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