Thanks. It helps a lot.
Do you know if there are any other projects (either open source or from specific vendors) similar to WSIF?
I am trying to get a picture as clear as possible of what is currently being done in this area.
Here is the way I understand it so far:
- Web Services using SOAP as the "encoding protocol" and HTTP as the "transport protocol" is pretty well defined/standardized. SOAP 1.1 and WSDL 1.1 specifications.
- Same thing for HTTP GET/POST as the encoding and transport protocol (no more SOAP, here). WSDL 1.1 specification. I do not know if Microsoft is pushing a lot on that one, but for sure it is there by default in the .NET ASP.
- Same thing (or close) for MIME as the encoding protocol which implies HTTP as the transport protocol. MIME is a little bit special since SOAP can also be used at the same time. WSDL 1.1 specifications.
- Not so sure about SOAP over JMS. I do not think there is a specific standard/proposal for that.
- Everything else is just open (not clearly defined/standardized). What I mean by everything else is, for examples:
- Web Service over EJB (EJB is both taking care of encoding and transport, but behind EJB we have java serialization for encoding and TCP/IP for transport, I guess)
- Web Service over "native" JMS (not SOAP over JMS, but all JMS or something like that)
- Web Service over JCA
- etc ....
Is my picture kind of correct?
Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Elder [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 6:42 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [WSIF] [PROPOSAL]Additional contribution ... JCA (J2C) provid er
Thomas,
The current version of WSIF is no longer on alphaworks its on the Apache site, for details see the WSIF home page at http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/xml-axis-wsif/java/readme.htm?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/html
You can see the doc provided with the JCA provider proposal from the online CVS interface at http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/xml-axis-wsif/proposals/jca/j2c_extensions/wsif_j2c_extensions.htm
To answer some of your questions:
1) Yes you need to write any new WSDL extensions a new provider uses. For example the WSIF Java and EJB providers defining extensions in the packages org.apache.wsif.wsdl.extensions.java and org.apache.wsif.wsdl.extensions.java respectively for their new bindngs. These are documented at http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/xml-axis-wsif/java/README_files/wsdl_extensions/java_extension.html
The JCA proposal defines WSDL extensions in its myEIS sample at http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/xml-axis-wsif/proposals/jca/java/samples/myeis.rar
in the myeis.jar in the com.myeis.wsdl.extensions.j2c.myeis package
2 and 4) Early on there was an attempt to standardized the WSIF model through the JCP/JSR process but at the time it was thought of as too experimental, so for now there is just the Apache open source project.
3) WSIF generates a dynamic proxy from an interface so doesn't need any stubs. WSIF doesn't yet have any tools to create WSDL or interface classes but you can use the Axis WSDL2Java and Java2WSDL tools to do some of the work for you then manually make any changes required for WSIF. For example you can use WSDL2Java to create the complex type and interface classes from some WSDL that WSIF can then use with any WSIF binding. However WSDL2Java requires the WSDL include a SOAP binding for this to work. Conversly you can use the Java2WSDL tool to generate WSDL with a SOAP binding from a Java class, then manually add any other WSIF bindings you require. Making these tools more WSIF friendly is something we still need to do.
...ant
Anthony Elder
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web Services Development
IBM UK Laboratories, Hursley Park
(+44) 01962 818320, x248320, MP208.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on 30/10/2002 15:31:20
Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc:
Subject: RE: [WSIF] [PROPOSAL]Additional contribution ... JCA (J2C)
provid er
I checked quickly on http://alphaworks.ibm.com without finding any documentation about the JCA provider for WSIF. Any idea where I can find that?
We are currently creating an application (J2EE application with embedded
Axis) to allow an end user to expose some pieces of our existing
application(s) as Web Service (the J2EE application will create new Web Services). So far, only SOAP over HTTP is supported, but we start getting some request for a java interface which is not going through HTTP and the SOAP marshalling/unmarshalling. We are currently considering some type of EJB interface to the service.
We are starting to seriously consider the use of WSIF to generalize the idea but I am trying to understand the scope of WSIF and if anyone else is doing similar things that I should look at, if this is something that will be standardized at some point.
Here is a first set of questions I am trying to answer. Any help will be appreciated.
1) When writing a new WSIF provider, does is also mean defining the corresponding WSDL extension (like the EJB ones that I saw in Axis documentation)? This is why I wanted to get some documentation on the JCA provider to see if it defines this part as well.
2) If WSIF implies WSDL extensions, who (if anyone) is working/pushing to have those extensions standardized? Any vendors?
3) Does implementing a WSIF provider also mean the creating of some type of tool like WSDL2Java (or may be an update to this tool) to understand the WSDL extensions and generate the client and/or server stubs/skeleton?
4) WSIF is a pure Axis/alphaworks project so far. Any actions to make it some kind of a standard?
Some of those questions might not make too much sense as I am just starting to educate myself on WSIF.
Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Sanjiva Weerawarana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 9:47 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [WSIF] [PROPOSAL]Additional contribution ... JCA (J2C) provider
+1! Very nice indeed ..
Sanjiva.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 5:19 PM
Subject: [WSIF] [PROPOSAL]Additional contribution ... JCA (J2C) provider
> Hi
>
> [Apologies if you have this more than once.]
>
> A team in IBM (Piotr Przybylski, Michael Beisiegel and Hesham Fahmy)
> have developed a JCA (J2C) provider for WSIF. They would like to
> contribute this code to the xml-axis-wsif project.
>
> The WSIF Extensions for J2EE Connector Architecture (J2C) allow
> Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) to provide the following:
>
> * Modeling of interactions with the EIS as services, using WSDL.
> * Execution of interactions with the EIS using WSIF.
> * Implementation of the Import Service that exposes EIS metadata in
> WSDL.
>
> Piotr's HTML architecture document which describes the provider in
> more detail is in CVS along with the code and sample adapter under:
>
> xml-axis-wsif/proposals/jca/
>
> This is a significant enhancement to WSIF which enables web services
> client programs to call EIS applications via J2C using the WSIF model.
>
> I propose:
>
> a) we accept the provider & sample into the xml-axis-wsif source tree
> b) to continue development and support the provider, we add Piotr,
> Michael and Hesham as committers to xml-axis-wsif
>
> Please send your comments and votes.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeremy
