Chapter 15. Exposing Internal Systems to External Partners

The adoption of new technologies into the mainstream retail world is not always as rapid as one would think it should be. A glaring case of this came to my attention one day when I went into a popular mega-bookstore looking for a book about improving your eyesight without glasses.

I went to the service counter and asked the clerk to search for the book by title. No luck. Then I asked him to look by author. Still no listing. Obviously chagrined, the clerk then told me that I might try going to the chain's online store and searching there. Apparently the in-store inventory system didn't have every title that is available on the .com site, and although the clerks have access to a proprietary stock and ordering system, they do not have access to the company's retail Web site. Although this is a case of failing to expose external systems to internal partners, the logical benefits of doing so remain the same.

Technologies Used:

• WSC

• SOAP

• WSDL

• WSML

• VBScipt

• ADO

Safely sharing internal systems with external entities is something that should never be taken lightly. Careful thought must be given to how to protect the application from unauthorized users. Also, the scope of the application must be carefully defined, to ensure that the capabilities granted to legitimate users are carefully constrained.

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) enable IS departments to formally expose APIs with at least the same level of protection and isolation at which they can publish Web sites for human consumption.