XML Web Services: Enterprise Architecture

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XML Web Services: Enterprise Architecture

Brand Niemann(from XML Web Services Evangelist to Solutions Architect)

Office of Environmental InformationUS EPA

June 26, 2002

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Overview

• 1. Enterprise Architecture• 2. E-Government Initiatives• 3. EPA Enterprise Architecture• 4. XML Web Services• 5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service• 6. Architecture of XML Web Services Pilots Projects• 7. Some Next Steps• 8. Contact Information

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1. Enterprise Architecture

• Enterprise architecture – a description, in useful models, diagrams, and narrative, of the mode of operation for an enterprise (agency):– Logical terms – interrelated business processes and

business rules, information needs and flows, and work locations and users.

– Technical terms – hardware, software, data, communications, and security attributes and standards.

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1. Enterprise Architecture (continued)

• Enterprise architecture – both for the current environment and for the target environment, as well as the transition plan for sequencing from the current to the target environment.

• Enterprise architecture – clarify and help optimize the dependencies and relationships among the agency’s business operations and the underlying IT infrastructure and applications that support these operations.

Source: GAO Report on Challenges in Managing and Preserving Electronic Records, June 2002, page 28.

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2. E-Government Initiatives• The E-Government Task Force found that the federal

government could significantly improve customer service over the next 18 to 24 months by focusing on 24 high-payoff, government-wide initiatives that integrate agency operations and IT investments. These initiatives could generate several billion dollars in savings by reducing operating inefficiencies, redundant spending and excessive paperwork. The initiatives will provide service to citizens in minutes or hours, compared to today’s standard of days or weeks. Moreover, by leveraging IT spending across federal agencies, the initiatives will make available over $1 billion in savings from aligning redundant investments.

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2. E-Government Initiatives

• In addition, the e-Authentication initiative and the Enterprise E-Government Architecture Project were added to address key barriers. The E-Government Architecture project will carry out two major concurrent activities:– One of the activities will be the development of a architecture, toward

the development of a Federal Enterprise Architecture, for each of the current E-Government initiatives, as well as a core set of standardized technology models to facilitate technology solutions.

– The second activity will be the collection and analysis of business and data architecture information across the federal government to identify new opportunities for E-Government initiatives and elimination of redundancy. Initially this effort will focus on four key areas including Homeland Security, economic stimulus, social services, and back office operations.

Source: E-Government Strategy, February 27, 2002.

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2. E-Government Initiatives

• Portfolios:– Government to Citizen (G2C) (5):

• E.g., Recreation One-Stop– Government to Business (G2B) (5):

• E.g., Business Compliance One-Stop– Government to Government (G2G) (5):

• E.g., Geospatial Information One-Stop– Internal Effectiveness and Efficiency (IEE) (8):

• E.g., E-Records Management

• Cross-cutting:– e-Authentication

• Infrastructure:– Federal Enterprise Architecture

Source: http://egov.gov/egovreport-3.htm

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2. E-Government Initiatives• So far government agencies have avoided the kind of

extensive re-engineering that e-government will require to be truly effective. Instead Federal agencies have been busy re-creating the stovepipes in cyberspace.

• Agencies are likely to exhibit significant resistance to dismantling niche business units and processes, fearing that doing so will result in loss control, funding and ultimately mission.

• As e-government matures, its focus will shift from simply providing online access to pre-existing services to offering new services and new ways of doing things.

• The newness will beg for a kind of methodology that allows success to be defined when e-government projects begin to cross agency jurisdictions or involve public/private collaboration.

Source: Measuring e-gov, Federal Computer Week, April 8, 2002, pp 20-21.

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3. EPA Enterprise Architecture

• Dedicated staff: Chief Architect and eight Team Members.

• EPA’s architecture effort was rated a stage 3 out of 5 in a recent GAO report, placing EPA in the top 20% of all federal agencies who reported.

• Completion of a draft baseline architecture assessment for the Environmental Information Architecture business domain.

• Incorporated a large number of modeling and analysis tools in the baseline applications inventory.

• Suggested that it include XML Web Services.Source: EPA Enterprise Architecture, Quarter 2, Fiscal Year 2002(Jan-Mar

2002).

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4. XML Web Services

• Why XML?:– The eXtensible Markup Language became a World Wide Web

Consortium (W3C) standard in 1998 as the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web (http://www.w3.org/XML/).

– The CIO Council created the XML Working Group in 2000 to facilitate the efficient and effective use of XML through cooperative efforts among government agencies, including partnerships with commercial and industrial organizations (http://xml.gov/).

– GAO report to Congress urges government to adopt XML and that Federal Agencies address XML in their enterprise architectures (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02327.pdf).

– XML Web Services is what OMB’s Mark Forman is encouraging in the E-Gov Initiatives and especially for the “collect once, use many” knowledge management projects like the Geospatial Information One-Stop (http://egov.gov).

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4. XML Web Services

• What is XML?:– XML is a standard for preserving and communicating information –

encoding, tagging, and internationalizing – that will be everywhere.– Web Services provide communication between applications running on

different Web servers that will bring the Internet to its new level.– XML Web Services are applications running on different devices that

communicate XML data using XML messages.– XML Web Services for geospatial data use the OpenGIS Consortium’s

GML (Geography Markup Language) and OWS (Open Web Services) standards and specifications.

– Web Services can and should be interoperable across multiple vendor tools and platforms in the enterprise (see http://www.ws-i.org/Community.aspx).

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4. XML Web Services

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4. XML Web Services The Web Services Standards “stack”

• Commonly used by the major vendors:– Work Flow (WFDL-Work Flow Description Language).

– Publication and Discovery (UDDI-Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration).

– Service Description (WSDL-Web Services Description Language).

– Messaging (XMLP-XML Protocol from SOAP-Simple Object Access Protocol).

– Content (XML-Extensible Markup Language).

– Transport (HTTP-Hypertext Transport Protocol).

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4. XML Web Services• XML.Gov, June 19, 2002:

– E-Gov Solutions Architects Working Group (SAWG), Federal Enterprise Architecture – Program Management Office:

• The usage of XML, Web Services, UDDI, SOAP, etc. (Lead-Marion Royal, Co-Chair XML Working Group)

• Leveraging emerging technologies and industry-proven standards (J2EE, MS.NET, XML, XML Web Services)

• Assignment of a Solution Architect to each of the 24 e-Gov initiatives.

– XML Registry/Repository – Business Case Analysis:• Booz Allen Hamilton complete the A-11 Exhibit 300• Registries describing and pointing to business services (i.e., web

services) offer higher value than registries that provide only XML definitions and classifications (i.e., XML Schemas).

– XML Web Services Working Group Proposed:• Natural role for Government as a provider of raw data in standard

format (XML) to private sector, who add value.

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4. XML Web Services

• Software Development Lifecycle Models:– Classical Software Development:

• Typically begins with a high-level architecting process which includes modeling the software objects and their interactions. Next an editor is used to write the source code using procedural programming languages (C/C++, Java, etc.) according to proper syntax and the compiler is invoked to translate and link the software to an executable binary format. Finally, a debugger is used to catch any errors, thereby ensuring correct program behavior.

– Modern XML Software Development:• XML technologies are significantly different from classical

procedural programming languages both in structure, syntax and nature. XML application development is also a completely different process that begins with the development of the content model using XML Schema or DTDs (see schematic diagram in next slide).

Source: XML Spy Integrated Development Environments, White Paper, 18 pp., 2002 (http://www.xmlspy.com)

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4. XML Web Services

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4. XML Web Services

• Document Framework Design – Advanced XML Application Development:– Schema Modeling: An iterative process which involves

initial requirements analysis, use-cases, as well as examination of existing data schemas. Additional refinements are required to map all of the elements of your XML Schema to the underlying database (relational or XML-based) or content management system.

– Data Flow and Process Modeling: The flow of information gathered by a document framework must be modeled from content author (non-technical domain experts), transported to the database, and then to content consumers (typically customers, partners, etc.).

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4. XML Web Services

• Document Framework Design – Advanced XML Application Development (continued):– Transformation Modeling: XSLT has a two-fold critical

role in both the input templates that are used by content creators and the output stylesheets that are required by the content consumers and must be designed to fit the data flow and process model determined earlier.

– Implementation: The business logic and user interface of a document framework application must be custom developed, but can be easily implemented using any of the leading Internet application development platforms (e.g., J2EE, Microsoft .NET web Services, Oracle Application Server, etc.)

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4. XML Web Services

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4. XML Web Services

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service

• Enter your zip code to retrieve environmental information about your community:– Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPCs) provide a

forum for emergency management agencies, responders, industry and the public to work together to understand chemical hazards in the community, develop emergency plans in case of an accidental release, and always look for ways to prevent chemical accidents. Local industries must provide information to LEPCs about chemical hazards, LEPCs are required by law to make this information available to any citizen who requests it. You can make a difference by attending an LEPC meeting or joining your LEPC.

• Please Note: Currently we have over 3000 listings in our LEPC Database. It is our goal to provide the most current and accurate information. We look to the LEPC community to help us successfully meet this goal. Please forward any changes or corrections to Dana Robinson. These changes will be incorporated and updated monthly.

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/lepclist.htm

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service http://130.11.53.73/lepc/FMPro?-db=LEPC.FP5&-format=-

fmp_xml&zip_lepc::zip_code=22181&-find=

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service http://130.11.53.73/brand.vxml

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service http://studio.tellme.com/

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5. Architecture of An EPA XML Web Service 1-866-745-7735

Welcome to the E. P. A. Local Emergency Planning Committee finder.

Please speak or touch-tone your 5 digit Zipcode.84040Here are results for the Zipcode 84040. The L. E. P. C. nearest to you is listed in the E. P. A.

database as follows. Davis County. At Davis County Sheriffs Department located in the city of Farmington.

Thank You for calling, goodbye.

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6. Architecture of XML Web Services Pilots Projects

• 6.1 EPA Geospatial Data Index (FileMaker):– Region 1 and 10 want to submit updates as XML Web

Services.• 6.2 EPA-Census Population Estimation:

– Part of LandView 5 (XML Web Service using Vultus (desktop applications to XML Web Services portlets) in process.

• 6.3 EPA-State Content Network:– Multiple applications and public/private partnership with Earth 911

(MS.NET) to integrate environmental content networks.• 6.4 EPA Region 3 (current OEI Lead Region) and EPA

Region 5 (future OEI Lead Region):– GML/OWS tasks in Geospatial Blueprint Report (May 22, 2002).

• 6.5 E-Gov:– E-records, Business Compliance, and Geospatial Information

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6. Architecture of XML Web Services Pilots Projects

• Evolution*:– 6.1 XML using HTTP GET and POST.

– 6.2 XML and Java.

– 6.3 XML, SOAP/XMLP (XML messaging), XML metadata (RDF), and XML content adapters in a e-content network platform.

– 6.4 All the previous plus GML/OWS (Open Web Services).

– 6.5 All the previous plus Enterprise Content Networking and XForms.

* From individual services to chaining together of services.

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6.1 EPA Geospatial Data Index (FileMaker)

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6.1 EPA Geospatial Data Index (FileMaker)

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6.2 EPA-Census Population Estimation

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Filemaker with Population database

End User with web browser

Web server

HTMLw/javascript

lat/long/radiusrequest

xmlrequest

xmlfile

1

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4

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1. End user enters URL for HTML page

2. End user enters latitude/longitude and radius, presses “Get Population” button

3. Javascript in web page issues URL to Filemaker for the census block records

4. Filemaker sends XML file back to the web page

5. Javascript reads the XML file, performs calculations, updates the web page.

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkNational Environmental Information Exchange Network

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6.3 EPA-State Content Network

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkNXT 3 Platform Architecture and Services (SCOTS*)

*Standards-based Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkBuild Your Own Enterprise Architecture!

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkSubmit and Manage Distributed Content

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkA Content Node for Every EPA Office, Program, Region, State, and Partner

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6.3 EPA-State Content NetworkIntegrating Environmental Content Networks

• Earth 911:– Started in Arizona in 1991.– Recognized by EPA and others in 1995 with a Presidential

Environmental Technology Initiative grant to expand nationwide dubbing it “Earth’s 911”.

– Recipient of the Stockholm Challenge Award for Information Technology in September 2001 (742 nominations from 90 countries). Referred to as the Nobel Prize for the IT society.

– Recently called “the future of e-government” by allowing thousands to upload their community information through a password protected user interface and be made available to the public in real time (Web and 800 phone number).

– Earth 911 model replicated to Pets 911 with the goal of ending the needless euthanasia of over 5 million healthy adoptable pets in the United States.

– Uses state-of-the-art hardware and software technology (AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft) including Visual Studio.Net for XML Web Services with information organized by ZIP code and state.

– The Earth 911 Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization with a staff of about 40 support by grants and contributions.

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6.4 EPA Region 3 and EPA Region 5

NXT 3

WordPerfectDocument

Web PagesDatabase

LOTUS 123Spreadsheet

Access XP Database

WordPerfect

XML

DTD

DEFAULT

html

html

123

.WK3

XML

Access

.MDB

XML

XSD

XSL

Folders

Distributed Content Sources

SoftwarePlatform

Note: UseManageContent toupdate if not accessible

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LandView/Cameo

CD/DVDs

State of PAPASDA

USGSEPA Region 3

CBPEPAWME

IONIC Web Services Framework (Proprietary-to-GML Converters)

IONIC Portrayal Engine (GML-to-SVG, etc.)

Web BrowserMobile/Wireless

Devices

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• Notes on schematic diagram:– GML makes it possible to render legacy and third-party

data and services interoperable – minimizing the coupling between components – by “wrapping” existing systems.

– The forthcoming GML 3.0 will include support for SML (Sensor Modeling Language) for real-time spatial data network data streams.

– Geospatial objects can be created, updated, and/or deleted through the Web Browser and Mobile/Wireless Devices.

– LandView/Cameo would also use CD/DVD encryption and the CITRIX Terminal Web Server for secure access needs (e.g., Homeland Security and EPA Situation Room).

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6.5 E-Gov (E-records)

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6.5 E-Gov (Business Compliance)

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6.5 E-Gov (Geospatial Information)

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7. Some Next Steps

• Work together on incorporating XML Web Services in the EPA EA work.– Education and outreach.– Pilot projects.– Use the new paradigms (see next slides).

• Collaborate on the presentation to the CIO Architecture Work Group in September.

• Coordinate presentations on the EA and XML Web Services Pilot Projects at the Second OEI National Meeting (November).

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7. Some Next Steps XML Separates Content from Presentation

Content

Presentation

Traditional Content Network:Integrated Portal

Content Network:“Uber” Portal

Personalization:Customer RelationshipManagement

Centralized Distributed

Centralized

Distributed

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7. Some Next Steps XML Meta Data Matrix

ResourcePerspectiv

e

Client Perspective

External

Embedded

Centralized Distributed

HTML <META>

RDDLhttp://www.rddl.org

RSShttp://www.purl.org/rss/1.0/

Annoteahttp://www.w3.org/2001/

Annotea/

UDDIhttp://www.uddi.org

Open Directory Project

http://dmoz.org

Outside case of little interest.

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7. Some Next StepsXML Meta Data Architecture

• XML data and meta data architectures are connected.• From a Resource Perspective, meta data is either external to or embedded within the data.

• From a Client Perspective, meta data is either centralized or distributed.

• There are standards efforts in each of the three areas of the 4 by 4 matrix. The combination of Centralized –Embedded meta data is of little interest.

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7. Some Next StepsXML Meta Data Architecture

• Client-server approaches to meta data work when there are a small number of known sources of meta data.

• Peer-to-peer approaches are needed in an more distributed environment to simultaneously query, discover, and aggregate the results locally.

• The architecture of peer-to-peer systems is instructive in the design of meta data applications using distributed external meta data.

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7. Some Next Steps“Hierarchical Peer-to-Peer” Diagram

Key: Client Nodes (outer circles); Server Nodes (inner circles)

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7. Some Next Steps“Hierarchical Peer-to-Peer” Diagram

• Centralized meta data sources pass queries from server to server on behalf of a particular client.

• Combines the convenience for the client of needing to contact and communicate with only one server with the convenience of distributing the task of meta data aggregation across a number of servers.

• Any given client node must know the address of the server node which forms its point of contact for the network.

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7. Some Next Steps “True Peer-to-Peer” Diagram

Key: Peer Nodes (all circles)

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7. Some Next Steps “True Peer-to-Peer” Diagram

• Makes each networked client a server of the meta data that it has aggregated from its local machine.

• There is no distinction between nodes which generate queries and nodes which provide answers – any node may be a source of both queries and results sets - queries will eventually travel to all parts of the network to seek its results set.

• This form of distributed meta data architecture is expected to become more prevalent.

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7. Some Next Steps“PIE:” Presence, Identity, and Edge Resources

PIE Pieces Name Explanation

ER Edge Resources Content, storage cycles, bandwidth and even human attention.

I Identity Name for one of the resources -- a machine, a document, or a person.

P Presence Ability to detect whether that resource is accessible in real time.

Resources at the Center migrate to the Edge, anonymous users gain Identity, and transient connectivity yields to Presence.

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7. Some Next Steps“PIE:” Presence, Identity, and Edge Resources

• The third generation of the Internet.• P2P architectures offer powerful approaches for

solving the seemingly intractable problems of the Web and creating a more efficient and robust Internet.

• Creates the most significant challenges to the traditional centralized IT departments.

Source: O’Reilly: Peer-to-Peer and Web Services Conference, November 5-8, Washington, DC. P2P 2001 Networking Overview.

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8. Contact Information

• Brand Niemann, Ph.D.– USEPA Headquarters, EPA West, Room 6143D– Office of Environmental Information, MC 2822T– 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

20460– 202-566-1657– [email protected]– EPA: http://161.80.70.167– Outside EPA: http://130.11.44.140