I have written quite a few SOAP services, so I will take a stab at it. (This is based on my own experiences and conclusions, so opinions may differ.) I am a big fan of Jetspeed and SOAP, so forgive me if I slide into *.advocate mode ;)
methods --combine--> Services --combine--> Applications (SOAP) (Portlets) (Portal) Think of a SOAP service as a single java object method that other developer's can call over the Internet. They call your SOAP service to create a single, atomic feature. Combining these features with other features backed by other SOAP services, They can create a "service". So for the developer, they can create *and deploy* a single java object which is accessed by countless others. Perhaps it helps to think of SOAP services as HTML forms. Consider: what happens in the HTML-Form scenario: Someone submits a form which is passed to your .jsp page. To your .jsp, this is a collection of String values which you extract, process, and return a new String - a HTML string - showing the results. Well, a SOAP Object is like that .jsp. The difference is except that SOAP allows them to POST Java Objects (strings, vectors, Integers, etc.). Likewise it can return java Objects. An example: 1) YOU create a SOAP-available amortization method. Clients connect to your method, pass you loan amount, interest rates, and length of loan. You process this information and return the monthly payment. 2) Now I want to write a "Personal Mortgage" service. I ask my user to enter in the loan amount and the duration of the loan. 3) I connect to SOMEONE ELSE'S SOAP method which will give me today's interest rate on a FHA home loan. 4) I take this rate, pass it to your method with the other info I've accumulated, and get the monthly payment. 5) I return the monthly payment to the user So as you see, we have created a real time application for generating monthly mortgage quotes - and your service was one piece in the puzzle. Your same service could be incorporated in many other solutions as well. In this example, the benefit to you is that you can create a single feature which can be re-used - or re-sold! - to developers creating many different applications. So what is the role of Jetspeed in all this? Well, if you listen to Sun, Microsoft, and IBM, you will hear that portals are the "service" aggregator of the (near) future. Using a Portal server (such as Jetspeed), I could combine our example mortgage calculator in one set of portlets, someone else's Real Estate information in another set of portlets, local- schools' testing results in another,... to create a full-featured, home-buying application. Adding new features is as simple as adding new portlets; and adding new portlets is as simple as connecting to new SOAP services. Heck - you don't even have to host the services themselves! You just connect to them and serve them up in new ways. Also, when it comes to web services, many mind's focus in on html presentation. Portal Servers - like Jetspeed - allow you to combine and expose services in html, wml, voiceXML, etc. This is why if you are creating a SOAP service, it is best IMHO that you return XML. Leave it to the Portal server (Jetspeed's XMLPortletController) to format the services for the appropriate browser. I hope this make sense, my mind moves a bit quicker than my typing, so forgive me if I jump around. I will happily clarify any point. Steve B. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wimmer, Matthias" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Jetspeed Users List'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 1:31 PM Subject: RE: SOAP and Jetspeed > A little bit of background knowledge is certainly necessary. WebServices, > SOAP, XML (it is NOT html) are not so easy. > > Axis is a web application. It is an engine to run WebServices. It is > installed quite fast and also a few basic examples can be investigated quite > quickly and easily (I am speaking about the JWS files). > > Ask me, if you need more information. > > Matt > > -----Original Message----- > From: Anthony Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 4:13 PM > To: Jetspeed Users List > Subject: RE: SOAP and Jetspeed > > > OK, I dont even know if I need it but I just wanted an example. I am > providng a lot of websolutions to this company via this portal btu I dont > think we are using it to its full potential. I just use Jetspeed & Tomcat > nothing else. What does Axis do? > > Alot of our portlets are just jsp or static html pages. > > I guess I need to look in depth to find the true meaning of a 'web service' > as well. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Wimmer, Matthias [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 2:58 PM > To: 'Jetspeed Users List' > Subject: RE: SOAP and Jetspeed > > > I can do this, but first I have to know, what exactly you need and what you > have installed and so on ... > > I am currently also investigating portlets accessing web services. I > installed Jetspeed and Axis both running on Tomcat 3.2. If you did so too, I > can send you and example of a portlet that accesses a WebService. > > best regards > Matthias Wimmer > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Anthony Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 3:47 PM > To: Jetspeed Users List > Subject: RE: SOAP and Jetspeed > > > I am trying my best to figure out this SOAP stuff. Can some one send me some > examples of what it can do, how it will make my apps better or easier or > whatever. > > Please! > > -----Original Message----- > From: Josh Hone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 2:10 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: SOAP and Jetspeed > > > Hi all - > > I am using a simple SOAP call to a simple service defined on a Tomcat web > server. A lot of documentation I read said that if you simply put all the > jar files you need to work with SOAP 2.2 (activation, crimson, mail, xerces, > jaxp, and soap) into Tomcat (with everything deployed into common/lib except > soap.jar) then your application would work fine. However, my app would not > make the calls until I put activation.jar into Jetspeed at web-inf/lib. I > kept getting the error message that said that it could not resolve a > namespace URI with &apos:xsd', which made no sense to me. > > So now I am working on other aspects of Velocity interfacing to SOAP, but I > am wondering about the interaction here. Why did Jetspeed need > activation.jar added? > > Josh Hone > Physics Dept. > Florida State University > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: > http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >
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