Web Services and the JISC IE

UKOLN is supported by:

Web Services and the JISC IE

Andy Powell, UKOLN, University of Bath

[email protected]

JISC All Programmes Meeting, Brighton, 2004

www.bath.ac.uk

a centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

JISC All Programmes 2004, Brighton

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What are Web services?“Automated resources accessed via the Internet. Web services are software-powered resources or functional components whose capabilities can be accessed at an internet URI. Standards-based web services use XML to interact with each other…”

“Automated resources accessed via the Internet. Web services are software-powered resources or functional components whose capabilities can be accessed at an internet URI. Standards-based web services use XML to interact with each other…”

“The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems…”

“The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems…”


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Agenda

• Introduction, RDN, ePrints UK, ELF– Andy Powell

• The Northern Ireland Integrated Managed Learning Environment (NIIMLE)– Greg McClure

• GeoXwalk– Andrew Robson

• Discussion


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Web services - summary

• machine (m2m) interfaces between functional components on the Web

• underpin many e-commerce activities• a whole new set of acronyms – SOAP, WSDL,

UDDI, WSRP• based on HTTP and XML (i.e. mainstream Web

pedigree)• support both informational (e.g. search) and

transactional (e.g. billing) types of service• Google and Amazon “Web APIs”…

JISC Information Environment

JISC-fundedcontent providers

institutionalcontent providers

externalcontent providers

brokers aggregators catalogues indexes

institutionalportals

subjectportals

learning managementsystems

media-specificportals

end-userdesktop/browser pr

esen

tatio

n

fusion

prov

isio

n

OpenURLresolvers

shared infrastructure

authentication/authorisation (Athens)

JISC IE service registry

institutional preferencesservices

terminology services

user preferences services

resolvers

metadata schema registries

JISC IE and Web Services






subjectportals




esen

tatio

n

fusion

prov

isio

n

OpenURLresolvers







resolvers


SRW(SOAP)

SOAP

JISC Information Environment






subjectportals




esen

tatio

n

fusion

prov

isio

n

OpenURLresolvers







resolvers



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Google and Amazon APIs

• Google and Amazon both make some of their functionality available thru APIs

• API = Application Programming Interface• Web services using SOAP• to use them you must

– register– agree to terms and conditions (personal use?)– be prepared to program dynamic Web pages

(using Java, ASP, Perl, etc.)

http://www.google.com/apis/http://www.google.com/apis/

http://www.amazon.com/apis/http://www.amazon.com/apis/


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What do the APIs offer?

• Google– perform searches and get back results (XML)– get cached-copy of page– spell-check (“did you mean?”)

• Amazon– title searches (all products, not just books)– ISBN searches– author searches– transaction creation (shopping carts)– transaction monitoring– (note: book results include metadata with cover image)


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Example 1: RDN/Google spell


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Example 2: ResourceFinder

end-user

portal

RDN ResourceFinder(Cheshire II)

Z/SRW gateway

Z39.50

OAI-PMH

SRW (SOAP)

RDN Hubs

http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/zing/srw/implementors.htmlhttp://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/zing/srw/implementors.html


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Portal/metasearch service

end-user

librarycatalogue

Google

Amazon

SOAP

Z39.50

SOAP

RDNSRW

Fairly active interest in RDN SRW fromPORTAL project (Hull) and fromLIONSHARE (P2P) project in Canada

Fairly active interest in RDN SRW fromPORTAL project (Hull) and fromLIONSHARE (P2P) project in Canada


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Example 3: ePrints UK

• from the project proposal…– harvesting metadata from UK eprint archives

using OAI-PMH– enhancing metadata by passing metadata

and full-text to 3 Web services…– subject classification– name authority– citation analysis


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What have we actually done

• harvest/search interface live

• some record enhancement being done

• defined SOAP interfaces for all 3 (in text)

• subject classification– not done

• name authority– done via OAI-PMH GetRecord requests (I.e. not by

SOAP)– not implemented as record enhancement

• citation analysis– done and working using SOAP (WSDL)


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E-Learning Framework (ELF)

• VLEs tend to be monolithic• ELF is an attempt to unbundle functional

components from within VLE• deliver components as Web Services• potentially moves eLearning part of the

landscape firmly towards SOAP-based Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) approach

• work being taken forward by CETIS• cf. VRE initiative (same thing for eResearch)


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ELF layersPresentation layer (User Agent)

Application services layer

Common services layer Content Management

DiscoverDiscover

Packaging

Authentication

Authorisation Course management

DiscoverCollaboration Assessment …

Education

Web Services and the JISC IE