Web Services Development in WebSphere v5

by
Tapas Banerjee

CEO, Web Age Solutions Inc.

What are Web Services?
 Applications that can be published, located and
invoked programmatically over the Web.
 XML-based (XML-in, XML-out).
 Self-contained functions that can be used
individually to provide services.
 Good applications:
– Business Information.
– Business Integration
– Business Process Externalization.
Service Oriented Architecture
A service-oriented architecture is created by
services communicating with each other
The SOA architecture allows
– Different systems and programming languages to talk to
each other
– Describes the service interface clearly
– Allows search for needed services
It’s made up of - service provider, service broker
and service requestor
Web Services implement this architecture
Web Services Supporting
Architecture Standards
Web Services rely on:
– XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
– UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and
Integration).
●
Publish and discover.
– SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
●
Query UDDI, binding and use of services.
– WSDL (Web Services Description Language).
●
Describe the interfaces of Web Services.
The Functions and Information
Flow
Service Broker

UDDI Registry

2. Assign a unique ID and

populate the registry

Service Provider Service Consumer

1. Publish 3. Discover

Web Service 4. Request/Response via SOAP Client

Web Services
Programming Model
 RPC-based:
 Service-specific.
 Synchronous model.
 Similar to RMI and DCOM.

 Message-based:
 Document-driven.
 Asynchronous model.
Web Services
Programming APIs
 APIs for RPC-based Web Services:
 Sun’s JAX-RPC (Java API for XML-RPC) in WSDP.
 Apache’s SOAP-RPC (Apache SOAP 2.3 ships with WAS5)

 APIs for Message-based Web Services:

 Sun’s JAXM (Java API for XML Messaging) in WSDP.
 Apache’s SOAP-Message.

 APIs for publishing and discovering Web Services:

 Sun’s JAXR(Java API for XML Registry) in WSDP.
 IBM’s UDDI4J.
JAXR –
Java API for XML Registry
Enables Java programs to access XML
registries.
JAXR provider:
– Accesses XML registry.
– A façade to a registry provider.
JAXR client:
– A client program that accesses an XML registry using JAXR API.
– Perform queries and update UDDI registries.
Sun’s registry browser
– Included in WSDP download.
– Is a JAXR client with GUI.
– Allows to publish and search XML registries.
Other Web Services Concepts
Several other important Web Services
concepts:
– Web Services Invocation Framework
– Web Services Inspection Language (WS-
Inspection)
– Workflows
– Web Services Gateway
– Web Services Security
Web Services Invocation
Framework
Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF)
– A framework for the simple invocation of Web
Services over a Java API.
– Allows for maximum flexibility and late (even
runtime) binding for clients
Web Services Inspection
Language (WS Inspection)
A complementary technology to UDDI
A service discovery mechanism
XML-based model for building a list of
references to existing Web Service
descriptors
Workflow and Web Services
A Workflow description allows a process to
be described as a sequence of discrete
events (e.g. service calls)
A workflow engine can then parse the
workflow description and execute the
sequence automatically
Defines a business process
Workflow Languages
There are three web services workflow
languages:
– Web Services Flow Language (WSFL)
●
XML-based
– Flow Definition Markup Language (FDML)
●
Similar to WSFL, but with extensions
– Business Process Execution Language For Web
Services (BPEL4WS)
●
A meeting of IBM's WSFL and Microsoft's XLANG
Web Services Gateway (WSGW)
The WSGW acts as an additional layer
between a web service client, and a web
service provider
Server side
Allows for better control over web service
communication
The Gateway Administrative
Console
Security Needs
Since web services are inherently network
based (and typically Internet-based), security
is crucial

Additionally, web service communication can

be compromised at many levels
SOAP HTTP Request Example
POST /SampleWebServiceWeb/servlet/rpcrouter HTTP/1.0
Host: localhost:9080
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 526
SOAPAction: ""

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

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-
ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:findDepartmentByName
xmlns:ns1="http://tempuri.org/webservice.ejb.EmployeeDirectory" SOAP-
ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<departmentName xsi:type="xsd:string">Sales</departmentName>
</ns1:findDepartmentByName>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
SOAP HTTP Response Example
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: WebSphere Application Server/5.0
Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=000050K5KBO5DKK1CC4A2J2VKIY:-1;Path=/
Cache-Control: no-cache="set-cookie,set-cookie2"
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 659
Content-Language: en-US
Connection: close

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

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:findDepartmentByNameResponse xmlns:ns1="http://tempuri.org/webservice.ejb.EmployeeDirectory"
SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<return xmlns:ns2="http://bean.webservice/" xsi:type="ns2:Department">
<location xsi:type="xsd:string">Toronto</location>
<name xsi:type="xsd:string">Sales</name>
</return>
</ns1:findDepartmentByNameResponse>

</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
Different SOAP Implementations
SOAP4J - A Java reference implementation of the
SOAP 1.1 specification. It now became the basis of
the Apache SOAP 3.x project, also called Axis.
Apache SOAP 2.3
– Ships with WebSphere V5
– Important elements are
●
Rpcrouter and messagerouter servlets
●
The deployment descriptor
●
Type mapping registry
What is WSDL?
WSDL is an XML-based language for defining
available Web Services and describing how to
access the services, including URL endpoint,
message format, encoding and required protocol.
Similar to IDL (Interface Definition Language) for
CORBA, describing the services and how to use
the services
WSDL 1.1 is the current standard.
Tools available to generate WSDL files.
UDDI Data Structure
Five data
structure types: <businessEntity>
<publisherAssertion>
Name
<businessEntity> description
name, contact, identification
– businessEntity name, contact,category
description, identification
description, category
– businessService
<businessService>
– bindingTemplat (1..n)
<businessService>
e name
(1..n)
description
name
– publisherAsserti description reference

on <bindingTemplate>
<bindingTemplate> <tModel>
– tModel Name
Description
URL pointer
to specification
UDDI4J
IBM’s UDDI4J is a Java-based UDDI client
API.
It provides package/classes for accessing
UDDI registry (publishing and discovering).
UDDIProxy object is the client side proxy
of the registry.
Program the UDDIProxy for
publishing/discovering services.
Developing Web Services
Generate deployable web service from
– Java Bean
– DADX (XML/DB2 mapping documents)
– Enterprise Java Bean
– URL
Generate skeleton Java Bean and sample
application from WSDL document
Web Services Client wizard also creates
– Web Service Proxy as Java Bean
– Sample JSP-based client application
Overall Workflow
 Typical development path
1. Create a Web Project
2. Create/Import a resource from which to create a
web service (Java Bean, EJB, DADX document,
…)
3. Create a Web Service using Web Service Wizard
4. Publish a Business Entity, if required
5. Publish the Web Service
Creating a Web Service from a Java
Bean
 Typical steps:
1. Create/Import Java Bean into Web Project
2. Generate binding WSDL document using Web
Service Wizard
3. Deploy Web Service to a Web Server
4. Generate client proxy
5. Generate sample client application
 Then publish, discover and use web service
… from an EJB
 Typical steps:
1. Create a Web Project
2. Create/Import EJBs into an EJB Project belonging to the
same Enterprise Application Project as the Web Project
3. Update project dependencies
 … then it’s “business as usual”
 WSAD only generates a Web Service from a
Stateless Session EJB
– … but that session bean can always use entity beans!
Web Service Development Phases
 Build
– May start from Java code, then we generate WSDL
from that
– Or start from WSDL and build/morph Java code to
match
 Deployment
– We can publish using
●
UDDI, WSIL or E-mailing customers
 Run
 Management
Different web service creation
paths
 From an existing application – bottom-up
– Most common. We like to expose existing back-end systems
for enterprise integration (EAI) purposes.
 From WSDL, generate a completely new application –
top-down
– This may be due to a new spec imposed by a governing body
– The wizards can create skeleton code from WSDL, we then fill
up the details
 Combine independent web services to provide new
functionality. This route is similar to the façade design
pattern.
Different WebSphere products –
how do they fare?
 There are three products in the WebSphere family that
can be used
– WSAD
– WSAD IE
– WebSphere SDK for web services (WSDK) family
 All three can do bottom-up and top-down from
JavaBeans
 WSAD IE and WSDK can do bottom-up and top-down
from EJB’s
– Regular WSAD cannot do top-down for EJB’s I.e. cannot create
EJB’s from WSDL.
… from XML schema
 Generate Java Bean from XML schema
1. Create any project that works with Java source
code (Java, EJB, Web, …)
2. Create/Import XML schema in the project
3. Start Web Services Wizard
4. Select Java beans for XML Schema.
5. Follow instructions to generate Java Beans
 Now generate the Web Service from the new
Java Bean
WSDK 5.0
WebSphere SDK for Web Services
– Entry level developer kit, free for development
– But not for production or deployment
– Runs on Windows 2000/XP and Linux
– Based on Axis (Apache SOAP engine)
– Has embedded application server (mini WebSphere
5.0) and a private UDDI registry
– Supports SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 2.0, JAX_RPC
1.0, WSDL4J, UDDI4J and WS-Security
ETTK (previously called WSTK)
 IBM Emerging Technologies Toolkit (previously called Web
Services toolkit)
 An IBM alphaworks technology, showcases technologies to
come
 Exposes the AXIS programming model
 WSTK version 3.2.2 includes
– WS-C/WS-Tx for transaction flows between components
– Web Services matchmaking engine – Businesses submit
advertisements. When a customers search matches an
advertisement, a response is triggered
– WSXL – For better handshaking of web services with portal
applications
Web Services Deployment in
WebSphere
If you are using WSAD 5, it is same as
deploying an EAR file
If you are using WSAD 4
– Export the Web Service as a WAR
– Use AAT to create an EAR
– Use soapearenabler.bat to add SOAP services
Summary
We discussed
– What are Web Services.
– Web Services programming model.
– How does a SOAP message look.
– Developing Web Services.
– Web Service Development Phases.