SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup Making sense of SOA standards Jaime Meritt Director of Technology

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation2 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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 today’s Web services and turn WS-AlphabetSoup into WS-WorldPeace? A comprehensive, yet comprehensible overview of the SOA standards

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation3 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The SOA Promise Agility: Respond faster to changing business needs; create and modify business processes Integration: Eliminate boundaries between business functions and integrate value chains Re-use: Make services broadly available, including across the Internet “cloud”

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation4 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The Need for SOA Standards Great! What’s the catch?

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation5 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The WS-AlphabetSoup The Fundamentals - XML - SOAP - XSD - WSDL - JMS - WS-Addressing - HTTP - WS-Policy

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation6 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The WS-AlphabetSoup The Qualities of Service - WS-Security - WS-Coordination - WS-ReliableMessaging - WS-SecureConversation - WS-AtomicTransaction - WS-Trust - WS-BusinessActivity - WS-Federation

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation7 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The WS-AlphabetSoup The Process Layer - BPEL - BPM - XPDL

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation8 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation9 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation10 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation11 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation12 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation13 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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 Port Service Binding Data Type Part Message Operation PortType WSDL Logical Contract Physical Contract

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation14 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation15 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation16 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup Qualities of Service: Reliability  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 WS-ReliableMessaging

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation17 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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?

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation18 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The Process Layer BPEL ≠ BPM Should really be Service Orchestration Language! Two different forms of process management

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation19 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup The Process Layer: BPM  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… “What is the impact on the business if I automate three steps?”

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation20 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup  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 SERVICES The Process Layer: BPEL “How do I connect and orchestrate IT systems?”

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation21 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation22 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup What if I wasn’t listening?  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 Progress infrastructure removes the rocket science

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation23 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup In Summary A working knowledge of SOA standards will improve architecture decisions SOA Standards are constantly in flux, let middleware worry about it so you don’t have to SOA standards enable rich interaction models between heterogeneous platforms

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation24 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation25 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup 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, O’Reilly, March 2002, ISBN 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

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation26 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup Questions ?

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation27 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup Thank You

© 2008 Progress Software Corporation28 SOA-24: WS-AlphabetSoup