1. A Web Services Journey on the .NET Bus
Exploring creation, consumption and the core concepts behind basic Web Services in .NET
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Group3 Systems Inc.
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Understanding the underlying technology – What is a Web Service?
Getting our hands around a Web Service – an audience participation activity
Seeing the “Nitty-Gritty” – Let’s see our new found understanding in play
Okay I see the nerdy stuff – so what?
Impact and initiative in the Hospitality industry – and really all industries
Seeing beyond the butterflies and light – still some problems
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4. A Definition of Web Service
W3C
A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP-messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.
Webopedia
A standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available.
Wikipedia
A web service is a collection of protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications.
Microsoft
XML Web services are the fundamental building blocks in the move to distributed computing on the Internet. Open standards and the focus on communication and collaboration among people and applications have created an environment where XML Web services are becoming the platform for application integration.
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Anatomy of Web Service
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6. Terms, Terms, Terms (TTT)
WSDL – Web Service Description Language
A standard way of describing the services provided by the web service allowing consumers (like .NET) to create proxy classes
Explain How to Use our Message
XML – Extensible Markup Language
For web services allows the message body (payload) to be encoded and understood between communication parties
Define our Message
XSD – XML Schema Definition
Allows the message data to be more than just text, actual definitions of data types can be included
SOAP – Don’t spell out the Acronym anymore
SOAP is a way of packaging our XML message so that the message can travel to many providers across many protocols and provide future capabilities yet unheard of
Package our Message
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7. Terms, Terms, Terms (TTT)
WSDL – Web Service Description Language
Defining what the Web Service Can Do
A fairly complex document structure defining the interface of the web service
Look here for the current spec:
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8. Terms, Terms, Terms (TTT)
XML – Extensible Markup Language
A Typical Message Content – the Payload
The actual body of the message is wrapped up in an XML document
<GetStateFromZipCode xmlns="
<strZipCode>string</strZipCode>
</GetStateFromZipCode>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi=" xmlns:xsd=" xmlns:soap="
<soap:Body>
<GetValuesResponse xmlns="
<GetValuesResult>
<xsd:schema>schema</xsd:schema>xml</GetValuesResult>
</GetValuesResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
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9. Terms, Terms, Terms (TTT)
XSD – XML Schema Definition
The Payload can contain an XSD Schema
Allows the message data to be more than just text, actual definitions of data types can be included. Note that .NET to .NET web service the CLR worries about type checking avoiding this burden on the developer. For complex types, the standard XML Serializer will contain the XSD information within the payload automatically.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi=" xmlns:xsd=" xmlns:soap="
<soap:Body>
<GetValuesResponse xmlns="
<GetValuesResult>
<xsd:schema>schema</xsd:schema>xml</GetValuesResult>
</GetValuesResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
The XSD Schema can be part of the result body.
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10. Terms, Terms, Terms (TTT)
SOAP – No Acronyms Allowed
The Framework
This provides the structure of the message. Rather than just passing data we wrap it up to provide future extensibility and platform agnostic packaging and delivery.
Envelope
(Mandatory)
Header
(Optional)
Body – Payload
(Mandatory)
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11. Testing our a Basic Web Service
Using the IE Test Harness
This harness is only available if you are local to server itself – otherwise you will need to use outside tools to test the web service interfaces
Notice Localhost, Web Service Project Name and/or virtual directory, and then the actual web service itself (ASMX extension)
Click here to see the XML format of the WSDL for your Web Service
IE reads the WSDL and parses out the services provided
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12. Mapping Terms into our Web Service
The WSDL Document
The web service has the capability of returning the WDSL document defining its implementation.
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13. Mapping Terms into our Web Service
The SOAP Message Request/Response
You could build up the SOAP XML by hand and send across HTTP POST methods to the ASMX and then process the HTTP GET method that is returned. .NET wraps up all of the trafficking details for you.
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Now I get it – So What?
Web Services describe themselves and how to interact with their data – extremely flexible (Think WDSL)
Web Services can communicate across the Internet or Intranet – completely transparent (Think XML)
Web Services are built to be extensible – they can change easily in the future (Think SOAP)
Web Service allows for service discovery (UDDI)
Nearly all major development platforms are Web Services ready – primarily .NET
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15. Hospitality Initiatives
Microsoft Smart Hospitality
HTNG’s specifications – extending SOAP and defining standards for hospitality industry
The workgroup created a specification for a SOAP header that handles authentication; a secure transport mechanism; and a set of XML services that were used to exchange customer information.
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What’s Missing
Transactions across Web Services
Security that is more robust than simply Web Servers
Standards for SOAP Headers across more than HTTP
Built-in XML Validation
Performance a critical issue – XML serialization and deserialization a huge hit
Some of the above is handled within the Web Services Extensions Library, Released for the .NET framework as well as the protocol work being done between IBM, Sun and Microsoft but the W3C has yet to begin to adopt these standards
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