3.5. The Web Services Marketplace

3.5.1. Products

Vendor Product Categories

The vendor solutions in the Web Services marketplace can be described as follows:

Infrastructure

• Application server

• Middleware, such as JMS-enabled middleware

• Edge server, such as cache (using XML database)

• Registries, such as the UDDI or ebXML registry

Development Tools

• Developer workbench that can wrap apps logic into a SOAP proxy, and publish it to UDDI

• Automated testing tools, such as jTest

Web Services Tools

• JMS-SOAP bindings, such as the JMS bridge

• SDK, such as WSTK

Web Services Standards

• Java, such as JAX, Web Services Developer Pack

• C#

• XML standards, such as SOAP, SOAP-SEC, XAML, SAML

Specialized Market

• Porting .NET to Unix

• Porting Java to Windows platform

Web Services Management

• Metering Web Services calls performance and service level. This can also send alerts to administrators or system management tools based on user-defined business rules.

• Security appliance, such as XML firewall for SOAP messages; appliance for SOAP message encryption and decryption.

• Service versioning, such as mapping to different service end-point URLs based on the incoming SOAP request and user profile. This addresses many legacy systems or customized services that provide the same business functionality but exist in multiple versions and perhaps operate in different platforms.

Table 3-4 offers a sampler of the vendor products in the marketplace.

Table 3-4. A Sampler of Web Services Vendor Products

Category	Vendors	URIs
Application Servers	BEA	http://www.bea.com/products/index.shtml
	Sun ONE™	http://wwws.sun.com/software/products/appsrvr/home_appsrvr.html
	Novell IBM	http://www.silverstream.com/Website/app/en_US/ProductsLanding http://www-3.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=highlights
	Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/net
IDE/Development Environment	BEA	http://www.bea.com/products/index.shtml
	Sun ONE™	http://wwws.sun.com/software/products_categories/development_tools.html
	Novell	http://www.silverstream.com/Website/app/en_US/ProductsLanding
	IBM	http://www-3.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=highlights
	IONA	http://www.xmlbus.com/
	CapeClear	http://www.capeclear.com/products/index.shtml
	Bowstreet	http://www.bowstreet.com/products/businesswebfactory/index.html
	Avinon	http://www.avinon.com/products/overview.html
	Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/net
Service Registry	BEA	http://www.bea.com/products/index.shtml
	Sun ONE™	http://wwws.sun.com/software/product_categories/directory_servers_identity_mgmt.html
	Novell	http://www.silverstream.com/Website/app/en_US/ProductsLanding
	Systinet	http://www.systinet.com/products/index.html
	IBM	http://www-3.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=highlights
	The Mind Electric	http://www.themindelectric.com
	Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/net
Application Tools/Middleware	Sun ONE™	http://wwws.sun.com/software/product_categories/development_tools/html
	Bowstreet	http://www.bowstreet.com/products/businesswebfactory/index.html
	Systinet	http://www.systinet.com/products/index.html
	Novell	http://www.silverstream.com/Website/app/en_US/ProductsLanding
	XMLGlobal	http://www.xmlglobal.com/prod/index.jsp
	IBM	http://www-3.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=highlights
	Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/net
Process, Management, Methodology	Sun ONE™	http://wwws.sun.com/sofstware/products/message_queue/home_message_queue.html
	Bindsystems	http://www.bindsystems.com/products.htm
	Bowstreet	http://www.bowstreet.com/products/businesswebfactory/index.html http://www.silverstream.com/Website/app/en_US/ProductsLanding
	Novell IBM	http://www-3.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=highlights
	Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/net
.NET to Java Porting	Halcyon	http://www.halcyonsoft.com
	Mono	http://www.go-mono.com/faq.html (Running .NET on Linux. This is still in the development stage. Currently, Mono provides a C# compiler on Linux, implements ADO.NET and ASP.NET. Please refer to the Mono status under http://www.go-mono.com/.
Java to .NET Porting	Microsoft	http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualj/jump/default.asp
Web Services Management	Amberpoint	http://www.amberpoint.com/
	Flamenco Networks	http://www.flamenconetwork.com/
	Talking Blocks	http://www.talkingblocks.com/
	Westbridge Technology	http://www.westbridgetech.com/

Vendor Products by Development Life Cycle

Table 3-5 shows some examples of vendor solutions that are available to meet different needs of the development life cycle.

Table 3-5. Marketplace for Different Development Life Cycle Stages

Development Life Cycle	Types of Development Tools	Examples of Vendors
Discovery	UDDI ebXML	Sun ONE™, IBM, BEA, The Mind Electric, Systinet, Novell (Silverstream), MicrosoftSun ONE™, XMLGlobal
Creation	Developer Workbench (IDE)	Sun ONE™ Studio, IBM, IONA, CapeClear, Bowstreet, Avinon, Microsoft
Transforming	JAX, XML, SQL Mapping	Sun (JAX), IBM (Xerces), XMLGlobal, Microsoft
Building	SOAP, WSDL	OSF (Apache), Sun ONE™ Studio, IBM, CapeClear, Bindsystems, The Mind Electric, Killdara, Microsoft
Deploying	Deploying tools	OSF (Apache ANT)
Testing	Local/remote testing	Jtest
Publishing	Publish to registries	Sun (JAXR), IBM (UDDI4J)

Some Publicly Available Development/Productivity Tools

Here are some development or productivity tools that can be downloaded as a free trial:

XMLSpy. For developing XML Schema, DTD, and validating XML well-formedness. The new version 4.2 also provides SOAP debugging. See Figure 3-29.

Figure 3-29. XMLSpy 4.2

Java Web Services Developer Pack. A freeware for developers to build Web Services using JAX. See Figure 3-30.

Figure 3-30. Java Web Services Developer Pack

The Java Web Services Developer Pack (JWSDP) from Sun Microsystems is a vendor-neutral Web Services Development Kit that avoids the need to purchase expensive Web Services packages. It provides basic tools but is not sufficient for serious or large-scale development. JWSDP provides:

• Tomcat engine with ANT deployment tool

• All-in-one JAR files—javamail, smtp, and so forth

• JAX pack—JAXP, JAXM, JAXR, JAXB

• UDDI browser and registry

• Application deployment tool

• Excellent tutorial book

How to Use JWSDP for Development

JWSDP can be used for proof of concept/prototyping, as a rudimentary development platform for road warriors, and for coding simple SOAP messages for integration testing. To best utilize JWSDP, you can run JWSDP on Linux, Solaris OE™, or Windows NT. You can run it with a SOAP server administration, or run it with Apache Cocoon for any-to-any delivery.

Something to Note. JWSDP has applied some special patches for JAR. There is also a version that is compatible with other stand-alone downloads of JAX Pack, Tomcat, or SOAP.

3.5.2. Selecting Your Web Services Tools

Selection Criteria

Here are some suggestions for selecting an appropriate Web Services tool for your IT shop:

General

• Total cost of ownership

• Reliability and support service of vendor (for example, financial stability, local support)

• Standards compliance (for example, J2EE™, EJB™ 1.2, SOAP 1.2, WSDL 1.1)

• Availability of technical documentation, such as examples, tutorial

Application Server Platform

• Clustering features benchmarking—failover recovery time, any manual intervention

• Logs—logging availability at different levels (for example, can it trace back different callers and intermediaries?)

• Automated testing and deployment platform

• Availability, of or integration with, other apps server analyzer tools (for example, thread performance analysis)

Web Services Development Platform

• Automatic WSDL generation from IDE

• IDE integration with other tools

Among these criteria, you may also look for:

• SOAP 1.1/1.2 support; SOAP 1.2 has some considerable changes

• Integration with J2EE™ application servers, and their positioning

• Compatibility with other Web Services products, such as JMS bridge

• Any proprietary features, such as Electric Server Page

3.5.3. Industry Development

There are three major Web Services development technologies in the industry:

ebXML. ebXML is a key technology supporting Web Services. It is backed by OASIS, CE/FACT, DISA, and many public communities. One motive driving these public communities is to use ebXML as an alternative for EDI-type transactions. ebXML uses SOAP 1.1 with Attachment as the transport and routing layer. It has much richer functionality and contents and is supported by business processes (such as BPSS) and better security.

SOAP. SOAP 1.0 used to be Microsoft NT-centric technology. IBM and other vendors have modified it to turn SOAP 1.1 into an open platform and submitted it to Apache Open Sources Foundation. SOAP 1.1 with Attachment is an extension to support object embedding with S/MIME, developed by HP and other vendors.

UDDI. UDDI is a business Service Registry that allows users to create, discover, and bind business services. IBM, Microsoft, and Ariba initially set up three different test UDDI sites. Recently, Ariba withdrew, but there is some discussion that HP will provide the UDDI test site on behalf of Ariba. SAP also now provides a public UDDI node.

Leading technology vendors such as IBM and Microsoft have large-scale initiatives in developing Web Services toolkits and White Papers. There are many Application Server and Middleware vendors developing components that support Web Services, including BEA Weblogic, webMethods, and TIBCO.

Many Web Services standard bodies have emerged since 2000. Among them, there are a few standard bodies (or related associations) that have large industry involvement:

OSF Apache. Open Source Foundation coordinates and distributes Web Services technology as public domain (http://www.apache.org)

UDDI.org. (now under OASIS) Standard body for promoting UDDI registry. It has recently transitioned to OASIS's management (http://www.uddi.org or http://www.oasis.open.org)

W3C. Worldwide Web Consortium that publishes and approves Internet-related standards (http://w3c.org)

Some examples of the supporting communities include:

OASIS. A community that supports ebXML standards and implementation (http://www.oasis-open.org/)

UN/CEFACT. Previously UN/EDIFACT, UN/CEFACT promotes EDI and also supports ebXML as the successor to EDI in collaboration with OASIS (http://www.ebxml.org/)

Open Application Group. A standards body that adopts the ebXML implementation (http://www.openapplications.org/)

DISA. A U.S. ANSI standard body that also adopts the ebXML implementation (http://www.disa.org/)

SOAP and ebXML

Web Services technology is intended to be platform- and vendor-neutral. It is expected that this technology be highly flexible for interoperability and integration. SOAP and ebXML standards are used for different reasons. This can be understood in the context of their underlying design principles and value proposition.

The initial design of SOAP does not cater to non-XML contents such as EDI transactions. SOAP 1.1 with Attachment is a major breakthrough; it uses MIME to embed binary objects. The original design principles behind SOAP also support non-HTTP transport, though it has not been implemented at all. The security design of SOAP is highly volatile and weak at this stage.

ebXML can be used to exchange XML contents (incorporating any XML document in the SOAP Body) and non-XML contents (embedding ANSI X12 transactions as attachments). The latter is the mechanism by which ebXML supports EDI documents. It now uses SOAP as the transport layer. ebXML differentiates from SOAP/UDDI by introducing business processes and JMS binding. It uses UML to model business processes. The business process and information models will help integrate with the business entities' back office applications. JMS binding provides a secure and reliable transport mechanism over HTTP.

Table 3-6 summarizes some facts about different Web Services technology thought leaders.

Table 3-6. Comparing Sun, Microsoft, and IBM Approaches

	Sun	Microsoft	IBM
Framework	Sun ONE™	.NET	IBM Web Services
Infrastructure	Open standards technology, e.g., J2EE™—Java™ and XML LDAP	.NET framework, including C#, VB, C++, VBScript, and JScript	WebSphere suite
Developer tools	Sun ONE™ Studio Sun ONE Integration Manager	Visual Studio.NET .NET framework SDK .NET enterprise servers	Web Services Toolkit Application Developer Studio Visual Age
Web Services dialects	Sun ONE™—Smart Web Services	Hailstorm (not available yet)	N/A
Discovery	UDDI ebXML	UDDI UpnP	UDDI
Security	WS-Security Liberty SAML	WS-Security	WS-Security
Business logic	J2EE™ ebXML WSCI	Biztalk BPEL4WS	J2EE™ ebXML BPEL4WS

References