Web Services Overview and Trends David Purcell MnSCU OoC IT

Web Services

Overview and TrendsDavid Purcell

MnSCU OoC IT

Introduction - Purpose of Presentation

Introduce a Service Oriented Architecture Introduce Web Services Review/Explain Technical Details Discuss Different Types of Services Discuss Implementation Challenges with

Web Services

Web Services and SOA Service-Oriented Architecture - What is It?

Unit of work = ServiceCentralized data access/business logic

encapsulated by Service ProviderLoose couplings between systemsReusable services that can serve many needsApplications can be assembled, rather than

built

Web Services

Web Services A way to implement a SOA Mechanism for application-to-application

communication (integration!) Uses standard protocols and languages:

Typically HTTP and XML Independent of programming language Two main types: SOAP and REST

SOAP Web Services SOAP – an XML language for encapsulating messages

What service to invoke Message contents (input parameters and response info) Auxiliary information about the sender, errors, etc.

Programmers use tools to make SOAP calls (Don’t code SOAP by hand)

Self-Describing: Description of Service using wsdl* Many extensions to SOAP are proposed to cover

technical challenges (security, etc.) Two main types: RPC and Document

SOAP Service TypesRPC (Remote Procedural Call) Remote call – Programmer calls a

‘function’ Most Common MnSCU services are currently RPC style Advantages:

Easier to create, consume Disadvantages

Shouldn’t change once in place - Breaks the notion of loose coupling

SOAP Service TypesDocument Style

You define the XML returned in SOAP envelope

Advantages:You can define a schema for the xml – any

calling app can validate against the schemaLess fragile – you can change the XML without

changing the service definition Disadvantages:

More difficult to develop

Soap Services – WSDL

Web Service Description Language Describes the Service

The exposed functionsThe parameters expected in the

request/responseElements / datatypes for the parametersHow to access (bind to) the service

Doesn’t have to be SOAP service

WSDL Example RPC-style SOAP Service - WSDL

SOAP Message

XML format for encapsulating messages Important parts:

Header Faults

Body Request Response

SOAP Message Example –RPC-style SOAP Service Request

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  

xmlns:SOAP ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">  

<SOAP-ENV:Body>     <ns1:echoString xmlns:ns1="http://soapinterop.org/">

      <testParam xsi:type="xsd:string">Hello!</testParam> </ns1:echoString>  

</SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

SOAP Message Example –RPC-style SOAP Service Response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<SOAP-ENV:Body>

<ns1:echoStringResponse xmlns:ns1="http://soapinterop.org/"> <result xsi:type="xsd:string">Hello!</result>

</ns1:echoStringResponse>

</SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

REST-Style Web Services Representational State Transfer Applications define their own specs

Typically custom XML defined for the response Resource oriented HTTP protocols – typically using HTTP

GET requests for retrieving data, POST requests for modifying data

REST

http://somesite/a-service/a-resource

REST-Style Web Services, cont.

Advantages: Simpler Don’t need any special toolkits Like Document-style SOAP services, the XML can be

self-validating Disadvantages:

Don’t get underlying infrastructure provided by today’s web services tookits, or tomorow’s extensions

Your app needs to handle the http request and any communication problems

You need to extract the data from response XML

SOAP vs. REST SOAP Advantages

Because of the standard protocol, toolkits can handle SOAP layer for you

Many Standards being built on top of SOAP infrastructure (security, transactions, etc.)

REST AdvantagesSimple to useDoesn’t require any special tools

Web Services Challenges

Security Conversational state Transactions Reliable messaging Orchestrating a set of services

Web Services Challenges, cont. There are many web services specs and

protocols However..

Competing standards exist Implementations are not widely available

SOAP/WSDL are the most common standards that are widely agreed upon and implemented

Web Services Challenges - Security How do you…

Ensure that the message wasn’t altered?Ensure that the message can’t be observed?Determine the identity of the requestor?Determine that the requestor is authorized to

use the service?

Web Services Challenges - Security Specs and Activities XML Signature - provides data integrity and

authentication XML Encryption – data integrity via encryption WS-Security

specifies how to sign and encrypt SOAP messages Uses XML Signature and XML Encryption, among others

SAML a framework for exchanging identification information among

partners Foundation of Liberty Alliance single sign-on capabilities

eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) Define authorization / access control in XML

Web Services – Security, cont.

Other competing specs and standards As security issues get resolved through

standards/specs, web service security can be handled with less application programming Security infrastructure would be more declarative,

consistent WS-Security – vendors starting to provide

implementations

In the Mean Time…

We can’t wait for all specs to solidify

We need to implement today

Technical Implementation Considerations Security

Authentication Encryption Authorization Basic Web App Security Practices

Error Handling SOAP Fault Specifying a mechanism to return errors

Technical Implementation Considerations, cont. Service Inputs/Outputs for RPC services

Flat ‘arrays’ of data Less fragile (you can add a new, optional

parameter without altering the WSDL) Simpler Can’t handle relationships among data

Complex data elements (relationships among data)

Used for complex data types More fragile architecture

Technical Implementation Considerations - Transactions

What if your app does the following?

1. Call Service – Update Info

2. Update your local database- 2.a – Problem occurs- 2.b – Rollback your database input

Technical Implementation Considerations - Transactions

You need to consider order

1. Update your local database- 1.a – Problem occurs- 1.b – Rollback your database input

2. Don’t call the Service

Technical Implementation Considerations - Interoperability Be sure you are using the same version of

specs on client/server

XML mapping – data types

Exceptions/Errors

Java Collections

Getting Started

Get to know your web services toolkits

Understand the services you need Web Services Resource Site:

http://its.mnscu.edu/isrs/webservices/

Tools Example

Generate Web Service Code with Axis:

set mypath = C:/my-axis-libraries/libraries…java org.apache.axis.wsdl.WSDL2Java

http://some-host/someservice/services/my-service?wsdl

Example – Client call to Query ServiceIsrsQueryServiceLocator locator = new

IsrsQueryServiceLocator();

locator.setIsrsQueryEndpointAddress("http://some-host/ws-isrsquery/services/IsrsQuery");

IsrsQuery query = locator.getIsrsQuery();

Response result = query.executeQuery( “queryname", “id", "password",new String[]{“rcid", "20055"}) ;

Web Services – Moving Forward Web Services and Portals

WSRP Web Services and Business Assembly

BPEL - a language for orchestrating services to make a business process

Discovering Web ServicesUDDI - a means of discovering a serviceNotion of a registry where you would find a

service – hasn’t really caught on

Portals

Web Services and Portals

WSRP Spec (Web Services for Remote Portlets) Most web services require an intermediate app to

display data Portlets are a good candidate for consuming web

services Why not provide user interface code with a service? WSRP! – A generic portlet can consume and display

many different web services.

Web Services and Portals, cont.

WSRP Support by major portal vendorsMight be good alternative to a portlet code

library For example:

Provide a summary of a student’s course schedule Provide a listing of messages for a student

Business Process Execution and Web Services BPEL – Business Process Execution

LanguageAn XML spec for coordinating web servicesCombine web services into a business

processSpecify order to call the services:

conditionals, looping, parallel pathsBPEL servers provided by many vendors

Conclusion

A Service-Oriented Architecture has advantages for a system like MnSCU

Web Services is becoming part of application development environment

We need to implement services properly: SOAP/RPC/Doc type/REST

We need to keep an eye on future trends – take advantage of them as they solidify

Questions?

References

Doc style services: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-docstyle.html

Apache web services: http://ws.apache.org/ OASIS WSRP Spec:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/3343/oasis-200304-wsrp-specification-1.0.pdf

WSRP overview from IBM - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-wsrp/?Open&ca=daw-ws-dr

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/ws-wsrp/ W3C SOAP spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/soap/

References, cont.

SAML http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/01/12/saml2.html http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev

=security Web Services Security

http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/03/04/security.html http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/01/15/ends.html

REST services http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/08/11/rest.html?page=1 http://www.xfront.com/REST-Web-Services.html

BPEL http://www.theserverside.com/articles/article.tss?l=BPELJava

Technical Examples – Hello World – Creating a Service using Java

1. Create a Functionpublic class TestService {

public String helloWorld(String name){

return "Hello " + name;

}

}

2. Download Apache Axis Library – add to your app

3. Modify Config Files (axis config file and web app config file)

4. You have a service!

Technical Examples – Hello World – Consuming a Service using Java

1. Get the web service description (WSDL file)

2. Use a Utility to Generate Helper Code1. Apache Axis has wsdl2java

3. Create Code to call the service, using the helper code

1. Lets tool handle all the ‘plumbing’