Integrative Programming and Technologies - compiled by - Tsegaye A.

Chapter One

1. Integrative Programming Fundamentals

Distributed Information Systems

Web services are Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications mapped to programs, objects, or
databases or to comprehensive business functions. Using an XML document created in the form of a
message, a program sends a request to a Web service across the network, and, optional, receives a
reply, also in the form of an XML document.

Web services are a form of distributed information system, they are changing the way we think about
distributed software systems development. Many of the problems that Web services try to solve, as well as the
design constraints encountered along the way, can be understood by considering how distributed information
systems evolved in the past.

Web services can also be used for business-to-business (B2B) integration, connecting applications run by
various organizations in the same supply chain. Web services can also solve the broader problem of enterprise
application integration (EAI), connecting multiple applications from a single organization to multiple other
applications both inside and outside the firewall by presenting to the network a standard way of interfacing
with back-end software systems.
 CORBA - common object request broker
architecture

 J2EE - Java2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

 ERP - enterprise resource planning

Web services interfaces receive a standard XML

message from the networking environment, transform the
XML data into a format understood by a particular
back-end software system, and, optionally, return a reply
message.
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Interacting with Web Services

The level of abstraction at which Web services operate encompasses such interaction styles as RPC (remote procedure
call) emulation, asynchronous messaging, one-way messaging, broadcast and publish/subscribe. Most major database
management systems, such as Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2, support XML parsing and transformation services,
allowing direct interaction between Web services and database management systems. Middleware vendors typically
also provide a mapping of Web services to their software systems, such as application servers and integration brokers.
To the user, therefore, interactions with Web services can appear as batch or online interactions, supporting
synchronous or asynchronous communications patterns, and as user interfaces written using Java programs, VB
(Visual Basic) programs, office applications, browsers, or thick clients to database management systems, to name a few,
and can map down to any type of underlying software system.

Information System Design

 Layers and Tiers

 Bottom Up Design
 Top Down Design

Layers and Tiers

A client is any user or program that wants to perform an operation on the system.

Clients interact with the system through a presentation layer.

The application logic determines what the system actually does. It takes care of enforcing the business
rules and establishing the business process. The application logic can take many forms: programs,
constraints, work flows, etc.

The resource manager deals with the organization (storage, indexing, and retrieval) of the data
necessary to support the application logic. This is typically a database but it can also be a text retrieval
system or any other data management system providing querying capabilities and persistence.

A case based Boxes and Arrows

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Each box represents a part of the system. Each arrow represents a connection between two parts of the
system.

Adding boxes makes the system modular: this provides opportunities for adding distribution and
parallelism. It also supports encapsulation, component–based design, reuse, etc. Adding arrows, on the
other hand, adds connections that need to be maintained; more coordination is necessary. The system
becomes more complex to monitor and manage.

The more boxes, the greater the number of context switches and intermediate steps to go through
before one gets to data. Performance suffers considerably. System designers try to balance the
flexibility of modular design with the performance demands of real applications.

Information System Architecture A case based Boxes and Arrows

 One Tier
 Two Tier (client/server)
 Three Tier (middleware)
 N-tier Architectures
 Clusters and Tier Distribution

One Tier: Monolithic Systems

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The presentation layer, application logic and resource manager are built as a monolithic entity.

Users/programs access the system through “dumb” terminals, whose display is controlled by the
information system.

This was the typical architecture of mainframes, offering several advantages:

 no forced context switches in the control flow

 everything is centralized; managing and controlling resources is easier
 the design can be highly optimized by blurring the separation between layers

Two Tier: Client/Server

 As computers became more powerful, it was possible to move the presentation layer to
the client. This has several advantages:
 Clients are independent of each other: one can have several presentation layers
depending on what each client needs to do.
 One can take advantage of the computing power at the client machine to have more
sophisticated presentation layers while also saving computer resources on the server.
 It introduces the concept of API (Application Program Interface). An interface to invoke
the system from the outside.
 The resource manager only sees one client: the application logic. This greatly helps with
performance since there are no client connections/sessions to maintain.
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Two Tier: Server API

 Client/server systems introduced the notion of service (the client invokes a service
implemented by the server)
 Client/server systems also introduced the notion of service interface (how the client can
invoke a given service)
 Taken together, the interfaces to all the services provided by a server define the server's
API

Three Tier: Middleware

 In a 3 tier system, the three layers are fully separated; they are also typically distributed
 Middleware introduces an additional layer of business logic encompassing all underlying
systems
 By doing this, a middleware system:
 simplifies the design of clients by reducing the number of interfaces it needs to
know
 provides transparent access to the underlying systems
 acts as a platform for inter-system functionality and high level application logic
 takes care of locating resources, accessing them, and gathering results
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Middleware systems also enable the integration of systems built using other architectures

N-Tier: Web Integration

 N-tier architectures result from connecting several 3-tier systems to each other and/or by
adding an additional layer to allow clients to access the system via the Web
 The Web layer was initially external to the information system (a true additional layer);
today, it is being incorporated into a presentation layer that resides on the server side
(part of the middleware infrastructure in a three tier system, or part of the server directly
in a two tier system)
 The addition of the Web layer led to the notion of “application servers” which was used
to refer to middleware platforms supporting Web access
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N-Tier Systems in the real world

Reading Assignment

Define and explain the following Software architectural Patterns/Styles and provide examples
for each

 Pipe and Filter Architectures  Client-server architecture

 fat-client
 Model-View-Controller
(MVC)  Thin-client
 Master-Slave Architecture
 Layered architecture
 Distributed component
 Repository architecture architectures
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1.1.Web Technologies

Web services require several related XML-based technologies to transport and to transform data
into and out of programs and databases. Web services require the use of several related XML-
based technologies:

1.2.Web Services

Web services are open standard (XML, SOAP, HTTP, etc.) based web applications that interact
with other web applications for the purpose of exchanging data.

WHAT ARE WEB SERVICES?

Different books and different organizations provide different definitions to Web Services. Some
of them are listed here.
 A web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the internet and
uses a standardized XML messaging system. XML is used to encode all communications
to a web service. For example, a client invokes a web service by sending an XML
message, then waits for a corresponding XML response. As all communication is in XML,
web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language—Java
can talk with Perl; Windows applications can talk with Unix applications.

 Web services are self-contained, modular, distributed, dynamic applications that can be
described, published, located, or invoked over the network to create products, processes,
and supply chains. These applications can be local, distributed, or web-based. Web
services are built on top of open standards such as TCP/IP, HTTP, Java, HTML, and
XML.
 Web services are XML-based information exchange systems that use the Internet for
direct application-to-application interaction. These systems can include programs,
objects, messages, or documents.
 A web service is a collection of open protocols and standards used for exchanging data
between applications or systems. Software applications written in various programming
languages and running on various platforms can use web services to exchange data over
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computer networks like the Internet in a manner similar to inter-process communication

on a single computer. This interoperability (e.g., between Java and Python, or Windows
and Linux applications) is due to the use of open standards.
To summarize, a complete web service is, therefore, any service that:
 Is available over the Internet or private (intranet) networks
 Uses a standardized XML messaging system
 Is not tied to any one operating system or programming language
 Is self-describing via a common XML grammar
 Is discoverable via a simple find mechanism

Components of Web Services

The basic web services platform is XML + HTTP. All the standard web services work using the
following components:

 XML (Extensible Markup Language) - the basic foundation on which Web services are
built provides a language for defining data and how to process it. XML represents a
family of related specifications published and maintained by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) and others.

 SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)- a collection of XML-based technologies, defines

an envelope for Web services communication—mappable to HTTP and other
transports—and provides a serialization format for transmitting XML documents over a
network and a convention for representing RPC interactions.
 UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) - a Web services registry and
discovery mechanism, is used for storing and categorizing business information and for
retrieving pointers to Web services interfaces.
 WSDL (Web Services Description Language), an XML-based technology, defines Web
services interfaces, data and message types, interaction patterns, and protocol mappings.

How Does a Web Service Work?

A web service enables communication among various applications by using open standards such
as HTML, XML, WSDL, and SOAP. A web service takes the help of:
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 XML to tag the data

 SOAP to transfer a message
 WSDL to describe the availability of service.

You can build a Java-based web service on Solaris that is accessible from your Visual Basic
program that runs on Windows.

You can also use C# to build new web services on Windows that can be invoked from your web
application that is based on JavaServer Pages (JSP) and runs on Linux.

Example

Consider a simple account-management and order processing system. The accounting personnel
use a client application built with Visual Basic or JSP to create new accounts and enter new
customer orders.

The processing logic for this system is written in Java and resides on a Solaris machine, which
also interacts with a database to store information.

The steps to perform this operation are as follows:

 The client program bundles the account registration information into a SOAP message.
 This SOAP message is sent to the web service as the body of an HTTP POST request.
 The web service unpacks the SOAP request and converts it into a command that the
application can understand.
 The application processes the information as required and responds with a new unique
account number for that customer.
 Next, the web service packages the response into another SOAP message, which it sends
back to the client program in response to its HTTP request.
 The client program unpacks the SOAP message to obtain the results of the account
registration process.

WHY WEB SERVICES?

Here are the benefits of using Web Services:

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Exposing the Existing Function on the Network

A web service is a unit of managed code that can be remotely invoked using HTTP. That is, it
can be activated using HTTP requests. Web services allow you to expose the functionality of
your existing code over the network. Once it is exposed on the network, other applications can
use the functionality of your program.
Interoperability

Web services allow various applications to talk to each other and share data and services among
themselves. Other applications can also use the web services. For example, a VB or .NET
application can talk to Java web services and vice versa. Web services are used to make the
application platform and technology independent.

Standardized Protocol

Web services use standardized industry standard protocol for the communication. All the four
layers (Service Transport, XML Messaging, Service Description, and Service Discovery layers)
use well-defined protocols in the web services protocol stack. This standardization of protocol
stack gives the business many advantages such as a wide range of choices, reduction in the cost
due to competition, and increase in the quality.
Low Cost Communication

Web services use SOAP over HTTP protocol, so you can use your existing low-cost internet for
implementing web services. This solution is much less costly compared to proprietary solutions
like EDI/B2B. Besides SOAP over HTTP, web services can also be implemented on other
reliable transport mechanisms like FTP.

CHARACTERISTICS

Web services have the following special behavioral characteristics:

XML-Based
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Web services use XML at data representation and data transportation layers. Using XML
eliminates any networking, operating system, or platform binding. Web services based
applications are highly interoperable at their core level.

Loosely Coupled

A consumer of a web service is not tied to that web service directly. The web service interface
can change over time without compromising the client's ability to interact with the service. A
tightly coupled system implies that the client and server logic are closely tied to one another,
implying that if one interface changes, the other must be updated. Adopting a loosely coupled
architecture tends to make software systems more manageable and allows simpler integration
between different systems.

Coarse-Grained

Object-oriented technologies such as Java expose their services through individual methods. An
individual method is too fine an operation to provide any useful capability at a corporate level.
Building a Java program from scratch requires the creation of several fine-grained methods that
are then composed into a coarse-grained service that is consumed by either a client or another
service.

Businesses and the interfaces that they expose should be coarse-grained. Web services
technology provides a natural way of defining coarse-grained services that access the right
amount of business logic.

Ability to be Synchronous or Asynchronous

Synchronicity refers to the binding of the client to the execution of the service. In synchronous
invocations, the client blocks and waits for the service to complete its operation before
continuing. Asynchronous operations allow a client to invoke a service and then execute other
functions.

Asynchronous clients retrieve their result at a later point in time, while synchronous clients
receive their result when the service has completed. Asynchronous capability is a key factor in
enabling loosely coupled systems.
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Supports Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

Web services allow clients to invoke procedures, functions, and methods on remote objects using
an XML-based protocol. Remote procedures expose input and output parameters that a web
service must support.

Component development through Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and .NET Components has
increasingly become a part of architectures and enterprise deployments over the past couple of
years. Both technologies are distributed and accessible through a variety of RPC mechanisms.

A web service supports RPC by providing services of its own, equivalent to those of a traditional
component, or by translating incoming invocations into an invocation of an EJB or a .NET
component.

Supports Document Exchange

One of the key advantages of XML is its generic way of representing not only data, but also
complex documents. These documents can be as simple as representing a current address, or
they can be as complex as representing an entire book or Request for Quotation (RFQ). Web
services support the transparent exchange of documents to facilitate business integration.

Web Service Architecture

There are two ways to view the web service architecture:

 The first is to examine the individual roles of each web service actor.
 The second is to examine the emerging web service protocol stack.

Web Service Roles

There are three major roles within the web service architecture:

Service Provider
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This is the provider of the web service. The service provider implements the service and makes it
available on the Internet.

Service Requestor

This is any consumer of the web service. The requestor utilizes an existing web service by
opening a network connection and sending an XML request.

Service Registry

This is a logically centralized directory of services. The registry provides a central place where
developers can publish new services or find existing ones. It therefore serves as a centralized
clearing house for companies and their services.

Web Service Protocol Stack

A second option for viewing the web service architecture is to examine the emerging web service
protocol stack. The stack is still evolving, but currently has four main layers.

Service Transport

This layer is responsible for transporting messages between applications. Currently, this layer
includes Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), and newer protocols such as Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol
(BEEP).

XML Messaging

This layer is responsible for encoding messages in a common XML format so that messages can
be understood at either end. Currently, this layer includes XML-RPC and SOAP.
Service Description

This layer is responsible for describing the public interface to a specific web service. Currently,
service description is handled via the Web Service Description Language (WSDL).

Service Discovery
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This layer is responsible for centralizing services into a common registry and providing easy
publish/find functionality. Currently, service discovery is handled via Universal Description,
Discovery, and Integration (UDDI).

As web services evolve, additional layers may be added and additional technologies may be
added to each layer.

Web Service Components

Over the past few years, three primary technologies have emerged as worldwide standards that make up
the core of today's web services technology. These technologies are discussed below.

XML-RPC

This is the simplest XML-based protocol for exchanging information between computers.

 XML-RPC is a simple protocol that uses XML messages to perform RPCs.

 Requests are encoded in XML and sent via HTTP POST.
 XML responses are embedded in the body of the HTTP response.
 XML-RPC is platform-independent.
 XML-RPC allows diverse applications to communicate.
 A Java client can speak XML-RPC to a Perl server.
 XML-RPC is the easiest way to get started with web services.

SOAP

SOAP is an XML-based protocol for exchanging information between computers, exchanging

formatted XML data across the Internet.

 SOAP is a communication protocol between applications.

 SOAP is the XML way of defining what information gets sent and how.
 SOAP is a format for sending messages.
 SOAP is designed to communicate via Internet.
 SOAP is platform independent.
 SOAP is language independent.
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 SOAP is simple and extensible.

 SOAP allows you to get around firewalls.
 SOAP will be developed as a W3C standard.

WSDL

WSDL is an XML-based language for describing web services and how to access them.

 WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language.

 WSDL was developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM.
 WSDL is an XML based protocol for information exchange in decentralized and
distributed environments.
 WSDL is the standard format for describing a web service.
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 WSDL definition describes how to access a web service and what operations it will
perform.
 WSDL is a language for describing how to interface with XML-based services.
 WSDL is an integral part of UDDI, an XML-based worldwide business registry.
 WSDL is the language that UDDI uses.
 WSDL is pronounced as 'wiz-dull' and spelled out as 'W-S-D-L'

UDDI

UDDI is an XML-based standard for describing, publishing, and finding web services.

 UDDI stands for Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration.

 UDDI is a specification for a distributed registry of web services.
 UDDI is platform independent, open framework.
 UDDI can communicate via SOAP, CORBA, and Java RMI Protocol.
 UDDI uses WSDL to describe interfaces to web services.
 UDDI is seen with SOAP and WSDL as one of the three foundation standards of web
services.
 UDDI is an open industry initiative enabling businesses to discover each other and
define how they interact over the Internet.