Previously, I wrote a post describing the use of Apache Axis to create and consume Web Services from Java. In this post, I will describe how to use JAX-WS to create and consume web services. I used Glassfish application server for this application. The Web service and the Web Service client are both web applications.... more »

In the past, I wrote a post on how to implement Web Services using JAX-WS on Glassfish, and Apache Axis. In this post I will describe how to implement Web Services using the Spring framework and Apache Axis. The spring framework uses JAX-RPC API to help implement and access SOAP-WSDL based Web Services. The main components required for implementing and accessing Web Services in Spring are:... more »

Industry discussion on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and virtualization positions them as separate, though related, topics today. Because of the wealth of public discussion on each technology, IT managers may wonder whether they are in any sense connected to each other. In fact, the technologies that come with virtualization can be seen as the key enablers for the flexibility promised by SOA. This paper establishes the technical links between these two popular developments in enterprise computing.... more »

To reap the business benefits of SOA, enterprises need a set of conceptual blueprints and guiding principles. An SOA Reference Architecture provides this critical foundation. It offers an architectural framework for planning SOA-based projects that maximize interoperability and reuse. It defines a consistent vision of SOA throughout the enterprise. It supplies the context for imposing best practices on development and deployment. It represents IT's architectural alignment with the business objectives for SOA and thus helps drives decisions associated with the implementation of SOA, including infrastructure requirements and investment priorities. With an appropriate SOA Reference Architecture, enterprises can manage the expansion of SOA within their organizations from pilot projects and grassroots efforts to comprehensive adoption.... more »

SOA Integration has recently emerged as the de facto standard for successful IT integration; it leverages the benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to solve one of the most fundamental challenges IT is facing today. Some architects mistake SOA Integration for the inclusion of an enterprise service bus or BPEL along with some adapters. There's more to it. This article will discuss how SOA Integration can be defined, what it solves, what to look for, and some points to think about for your IT organization. It also points out some of the most common mistakes, such as the Accidental Integration Architecture pattern.... more »

S3 is a file storage and serving service offered by Amazon. In this article, Eric Heuveneers demonstrates how to use Amazon S3 via its simple REST API to store and serve your own documents, potentially offloading bandwidth from your own application.... more »

This tutorial discusses the concepts of REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP) and shows how they apply to services. It also shows how to use Java technology to implement REST/APP-based services.... more »

Many in the media are already calling on the demise of SOA and saying that it's just a passing phase, or it's really just a rebrand of the EAI space, or that it will be segmented only to certain integration-type challenges. We have a bit of a different take. The term SOA will go away over the next several years but it will go the same route that e-commerce applications went. If you think back to the mid-'90s, we started talking about e-commerce as an architecture that was distinct from the then traditional enterprise architecture. However, over the past few years, e-commerce as a term has disappeared because it has become the ubiquitous expectation for how we build applications, or what those applications do (some kind of commerce). It consumed the entire enterprise application space.... more »

Using Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) technology to design and develop Web services yields many benefits, including simplifying the construction of Web services and Web service clients in Java, easing the development and deployment of Web services, and speeding up Web services development. This tutorial walks you through how to do all of this and more by developing a sample order-processing application that exposes its functionality as Web services. After going through this tutorial, you'll be able to apply these concepts and your newly acquired knowledge to develop Web services for your application using JAX-WS technology.... more »

Einstein made that famous statement many decades ago, and it's still relevant today for building superior software systems. Unfortunately, as anyone who has been in the IT industry for long can point out, far too many software systems have failed Einstein's test. Some are made too simple to carry out the duties they are supposed to perform. Others are made too complex, and the costs of building and maintaining them have rocketed, not to mention the nearly impossible tasks of integrating different systems together. It seems that reaching the right level of simplicity is more like a dream than reality. Where have we gone wrong?... more »