Web Service Composition

Web Service Composition
Prepared by Robert Ma
February 5, 2007
Web Services
Consider the following set of web services

XYZ CORP
wsdl orderFromSupplier wsdl wsdl checkInventory wsdl
wsdl
orderReceived
wsdl
wsdl
shipOrder
wsdl
wsdl replyCustomer wsdl UDDI
ECE 1770 Web Service Composition
Web Services (2)
What about between organizations?

XYZ CORP
Supplier 1
wsdl
orderReceived
wsdl
wsdl
shipOrder
wsdl
Supplier 2
wsdl replyCustomer wsdl UDDI
Supplier 3
Overview
Businesses today requires to quickly adapt to customer needs and market conditions
EAI and B2B interactions (through web services)
Needs to be flexible internally and externally
Without a common set of standard, each organization is left to build their own set of proprietary business protocols
Leaving little flexibility for true web services collaboration
Web Service Composition
Definition:
Provides an open, standards-based approach for connecting web services together to create higher-level business processes.
Standards are designed to reduce the complexity required to compose web services, hence reducing time and costs, and increase overall efficiency in businesses
Web Service Composition (2)
Supplier 1
Supplier 2 wsdl
Supplier 3 wsdl
XYZ CORP
wsdl
Supplier 1
XYZ CORP
wsdl orderReceived wsdl wsdl shipOrder
wsdl
wsdl wsdl orderFromSupplier wsdl
Supplier 2
wsdl
orderReceived
wsdl checkInventory wsdl wsdlwsdl wsdl replyCustomer

UDDI
wsdl
shipOrder
wsdl
wsdl replyCustomer wsdl
Supplier 3
Basic Requirements
Ability to invoke services in a asynchronous manner
Achieve reliability, scalability, and adaptability required by Todays IT environment
Manage exception and transactional integrity
Studies shown nearly 80% of the time spent in building business processes are spent in exception management
Provide dynamic, flexible, and adaptable framework

Provide a clear separation between the process logic and the web services used Able to compose higher-level services from existing processes
Standards
BPEL4WS (a.k.a. BPEL) Business Process Execution Language for Web Services
IBM and Microsoft
WSCI Web Services Choreography Interface
Sun, SAP, BEA, and Intalio
BPML Business Process Management Language
BPMI.org (chartered by Intarlio, Sterling Commerce, Sun, CSC, and others)

BPEL4WS
XML-Based language It describes the control logic for web services coordination in a business process Interpreted and executed by a BPEL engine
BPEL - Overview
Use Web Services Standard as a base

1.
2.
3.
Every BPEL is exposed as a web service using WSDL. And the WSDL describes the public entry and exit points of the process Interacts through WSDL interfaces with external web services WSDL data types are used to describe information flow within the BPEL process
BPEL - Process Overview
BPEL - Process Models
Provides support for two business process models
Executable
Models the behavior of participants in a specific business interaction, a private workflow Business protocols in BPEL, specify the public message exchanges between parties
Abstract
BPEL - Activities
Basic Activities:
Interacts with external services
<invoke>, <receive>, and <reply>
Structured Activities:
Internal process control flow
sequential flow, conditional branching, looping, and etc.
BPEL - Containers and Partners
Containers
Data exchanges in the message flow e.g. WSDL messageType Any services that the process invokes OR any services that the invokes the process
<partners> <partner name=buyer myRole=agent/> <partner name=supplier myRole=requestor partnerRole=supplier/>
Partners
</partners> <containers> <container name=request messageType=tns:orderRequest/> <container name=response messageType=tns:orderResponse/> </containers>

BPEL - Code
A sequence
<sequence>
<receive partner=buyer operation=sendOrder container=request/> <invoke partner=supplier operation=request container=order/> <reply partner=buyer operation=response container=proposal/> </sequence>
request sendOrder
request
order
proposal
response
BPEL - Others
Transactions and Exceptions
Building on top of WS-Coordination and WS-Transaction specifications Transaction A set of activities can be grouped in a single transaction through the <scope> tag
Can specify compensation handlers (rollback) if there is an error
Exception Handling Through the use of throw and catch (similar to Java)
BPEL Example Process
WSCI

XML-based language Defines the choreography describing the messages between web services that participate in a collaborative exchange Only describes the observable behavior between web services
No single controlling process managing the interaction
WSCI - Actions
Actions <action> represents a unit of work and would typically map to a specific WSDL operation WSDL describes the entry points of each service WSCI describes the interactions among these operations External services are invoked through <call> tag
Supports transaction and exception handling

WSCI - Snippet
<process name=Purchase instantiation=message> <sequence> <action name=ReceiveOrder role=Agent operation=tns:Order> </action> <action name=Confirm role=Agent operation=tns:Confirm> <correlate correlation=tns:ordered/> <call process=tns:Purchase/> </action> </sequence> </process>
Note: this WSCI is from the perspective of the Agent, there would also be WSCI file for other parties in the process
BPML

XML-based language Incorporates WSCI into the standard

WSCI used to describe public interactions BPML used to develop private logic implementations
Provides similar process flow constructs and activities as BPEL Transactional support and exception handling
Summary
BPEL and BPML focuses on creation of business processes
Describe an executable process from the partners perspective
WSCI focuses on public message exchanges between web services
Each participant in message exchange defines a WSCI interface
Summary
Some Open/Closed Source Engines
BPEL
IBM WebSphere Process Server + WebSphere Integration Developer
$5014 for a 12-month license
Microsoft BizTalk Server
Standard Ed. for $8499 USD and Enterprise Ed. for $29999 USD http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/howtobuy/default.mspx
Open Source Twister
$0 $0
Eclipse - SOA Tools Platform
Discussion
Security in Web Service Composition and Web Service in general
A number of standards like XML Digital Signatures and Encryption, WS-Security Provide authentication and authorization of users, and for securing the XML message itself But composition standards do not offer direct support for security! In BPEL, how do the roles defined for each partner relate the existing authentication standards?

Web Service Composition

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Web Service Composition

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Web Service Composition

Consider the following set of web services

wsdl orderFromSupplier wsdl wsdl checkInventory wsdl

wsdl replyCustomer wsdl UDDI

ECE 1770 Web Service Composition

Web Services (2)

What about between organizations?

wsdl orderFromSupplier wsdl wsdl checkInventory wsdl

wsdl replyCustomer wsdl UDDI

ECE 1770 Web Service Composition

EAI and B2B interactions (through web services)

Needs to be flexible internally and externally

Leaving little flexibility for true web services collaboration

ECE 1770 Web Service Composition