Web Service Contract Design and Versioning for SOA [Hardcover]

Thomas Erl (Author), Anish Karmarkar (Author), Priscilla Walmsley (Author), Hugo Haas (Author), L. Umit Yalcinalp (Author), Kevin Liu (Author), David Umit Orchard (Author), Andre Tost (Author), James Pasley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 013613517X | ISBN-13: 978-0136135173 | Publication Date: October 4, 2008 | Edition: 1

The Ultimate Guide for Designing and Governing Web Service Contracts

 

For Web services to succeed as part of SOA, they require balanced, effective technical contracts that enable services to be evolved and repeatedly reused for years to come. Now, a team of industry experts presents the first end-to-end guide to designing and governing Web service contracts. Writing for developers, architects, governance specialists, and other IT professionals, the authors cover the following areas:

 

Understanding Web Service Contract Technologies

Initial chapters and ongoing supplementary content help even the most inexperienced professional get up to speed on how all of the different technologies and design considerations relate to the creation of Web service contracts. For example, a visual anatomy of a Web service contract documented from logical and physical perspectives is provided, along with a chapter dedicated to describing namespaces in plain English. The book is further equipped with numerous case study examples and many illustrations.

 

Fundamental and Advanced WSDL

Tutorial coverage of WSDL 1.1 and 2.0 and detailed descriptions of their differences is followed by numerous advanced WSDL topics and design techniques, including extreme loose coupling, modularization options, use of extensibility elements, asynchrony, message dispatch, service instance identification, non-SOAP HTTP binding, and WS-BPEL extensions. Also explained is how WSDL definitions are shaped by key SOA design patterns.

 

Fundamental and Advanced XML Schema

XML Schema basics are covered within the context of Web services and SOA, after which advanced XML Schema chapters delve into a variety of specialized message design considerations and techniques, including the use of wildcards, reusability of schemas and schema fragments, type inheritance and composition, CRUD-style message design, and combining industry and custom schemas.

 

Fundamental and Advanced WS-Policy

Topics, such as Policy Expression Structure, Composite Policies, Operator Composition Rules, and Policy Attachment establish a foundation upon which more advanced topics, such as policy reusability and centralization, nested, parameterized, and ignorable assertions are covered, along with an exploration of creating concurrent policy-enabled contracts and designing custom policy assertions and vocabularies.

 

Fundamental Message Design with SOAP
A broad range of message design-related topics are covered, including SOAP message structures, SOAP nodes and roles, SOAP faults, designing custom SOAP headers and working with industry-standard SOAP headers.

 

Advanced Message Design with WS-Addressing

The art of message design is taken to a new level with in-depth descriptions of WS-Addressing endpoint references (EPRs) and MAP headers and an exploration of how they are applied via SOA design patterns. Also covered are WSDL binding considerations, related MEP rules, WS-Addressing policy assertions, and detailed coverage of how WS-Addressing relates to SOAP Action values.

 

Advanced Message Design with MTOM, and SwA

Developing SOAP messages capable of transporting large documents or binary content is explored with a documentation of the MTOM packaging and serialization framework (including MTOM-related policy assertions), together with the SOAP with Attachments (SwA) standard and the related WS-I Attachments Profile.

 

Versioning Techniques and Strategies

Fundamental versioning theory starts off a series of chapters that dive into a variety of versioning techniques based on proven SOA design patterns including backward and forward compatibility, version identification strategies, service termination, policy versioning, validation by projection, concurrency control, partial understanding, and versioning with and without wildcards.

 

Web Service Contracts and SOA

The constant focus of this book is on the design and versioning of Web service contracts in support of SOA and service-orientation. Relevant SOA design principles and design patterns are periodically discussed to demonstrate how specific Web service technologies can be applied and further optimized. Furthermore, several of the advanced chapters provide expert techniques for designing Web service contracts while taking SOA governance considerations into account.

 

About the Web Sites

 

www.soabooks.com supplements this book with a variety of resources, including a diagram symbol legend, glossary, supplementary articles, and source code available for download.

 

www.soaspecs.com provides further support by establishing a descriptive portal to XML and Web services specifications referenced in all of Erl’s Service-Oriented Architecture books.

 

 

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Case Study Background

 

Part I: Fundamental Service Contract Design

Chapter 3: SOA Fundamentals and Web Service Contracts

Chapter 4: Anatomy of a Web Service Contract

Chapter 5: A Plain English Guide to Namespaces

Chapter 6: Fundamental XML Schema: Types and Message Structure Basics

Chapter 7: Fundamental WSDL Part I: Abstract Description Design

Chapter 8: Fundamental WSDL Part II: Concrete Description Design

Chapter 9: Fundamental WSDL 2.0: New Features, and Design Options

Chapter 10: Fundamental WS-Policy: Expression, Assertion, and Attachment

Chapter 11: Fundamental Message Design: SOAP Envelope Structure, and Header Block Processing

 

Part II: Advanced Service Contract Design

 

Chapter 12: Advanced XML Schema Part I: Message Flexibility, and Type Inheritance and Composition

Chapter 13: Advanced XML Schema Part II: Reusability, Derived Types, and Relational Design

Chapter 14: Advanced WSDL Part I: Modularization, Extensibility, MEPs, and Asynchrony

Chapter 15: Advanced WSDL Part II: Message Dispatch, Service Instance Identification, and Non-SOAP HTTP Binding

Chapter 16: Advanced WS-Policy Part I: Policy Centralization and Nested, Parameterized, and Ignorable Assertions

Chapter 17: Advanced WS-Policy Part II: Custom Policy Assertion Design, Runtime Representation, and Compatibility

Chapter 18: Advanced Message Design Part I: WS-Addressing Vocabularies

Chapter 19: Advanced Message Design Part II: WS-Addressing Rules and Design Techniques

 

Part III: Service Contract Versioning

Chapter 20: Versioning Fundamentals

Chapter 21: Versioning WSDL Definitions

Chapter 22: Versioning Message Schemas

Chapter 23: Advanced Versioning

 

Part IV: Appendices

Appendix A: Case Study Conclusion

Appendix B: A Comparison of Web Services and REST Services

Appendix C: How Technology Standards are Developed

Appendix D: Alphabetical Pseudo Schema Reference

Appendix E: SOA Design Patterns Related to This Book

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Erl is the world’s top-selling SOA author, Series Editor of the Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl, and Editor of the SOA Magazine (www.soamag.com). With over 100,000 copies in print world-wide, his books have become international bestsellers and have been formally endorsed by senior members of major software organizations, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, BEA, Sun, Intel, SAP, and HP.

 

His most recent titles SOA Design Patterns (www.soapatterns.com) and Web Service Contract Design and Versioning for SOA were co-authored with a series of industry experts and follow his first three books Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services, Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design, and SOA: Principles of Service Design (www.soaprinciples.com). Thomas is the founder of SOA Systems Inc. (www.soasystems.com), a company specializing in SOA consulting and training services with a vendor-agnostic focus. Thomas is also the founder of the internationally recognized SOA Certified Professional program (www.soacp.com and www.soaschool.com). Thomas is a speaker and instructor for private and public events, and has delivered many workshops and keynote speeches. Articles and interviews by Thomas have been published in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal.

 

For more information, visit: www.thomaserl.com.

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

After we completed this manuscript, I checked the schedule and noticed our original start date. From the initial kick-off call during which everyone was given the green light to begin writing their chapters to the day I had to hand over the manuscript to Prentice Hall for indexing spanned a period of about 32 months. I initially didn't think too much of it because I already knew this project had taken over two years. But when I looked at that number again sometime later, it struck me.

The time it has taken for this book to be developed and authored is actually comparable to the time it originally took for several of the XML and Web services-based technology specifications covered in this book to be developed into fully ratified standards.

Though a curious statistic, this comparison doesn't do the subject matter justice. The development processes these technology standards were subject to are on entirely different levels, in that they were vastly complex both from human and technology perspectives.

There's the human element that emerges in the technical committee that is tasked with the responsibility of producing a standard. Such a committee will be comprised of members with different agendas, different perceptions, and different personalities. So many differences can turn a standards development process into a rollercoaster of group dynamics, ranging from strong teamwork to stages of scrutiny, confrontation, and even raw tension. Trying to achieve a consensus in an active technical committee is not for the weak at heart.

And then there's the technology element, which is reflected in the deliverables produced by the committee. Technical specifications are meticulously crafted and worded and revised and reworded in continuous, patient, and sometimes mind-numbingly tedious cycles. But despite best efforts, creating a new language or vocabulary that will meet the ever-escalating needs and expectations of the industry as a whole is a daunting prospect. Not to mention that there is a constant possibility that the particular standard a committee might have spent a good part their lives working on will be overshadowed by a competing effort or perhaps even rejected by the industry altogether.

But amidst these challenges, there have been many success stories. In a way, this book is a testament of this in that it documents a collection of respected and widely-recognized de facto standards that have established themselves as important IT milestones.

Ultimately, though, this book is about you, the reader. It was written for you to fully leverage what these technology standards have to offer. As successful as these technologies have been, what counts in the end is how effective they are for you.

—Thomas Erl

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 848 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (October 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013613517X
• ISBN-13: 978-0136135173
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 1.9 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Bad Kindle Edition, January 13, 2010

By 

Trent Austin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Web Service Contract Design and Versioning for SOA (Kindle Edition)

I just wanted to let other Kindle owners in the IT profession know that the content of this book is as good as the other reviews indicate, but you should buy the paper edition rather than the Kindle edition.

Most of the xml in the Kindle edition is unreadable, due to its being truncated at the left margin, and sometimes at the bottom of the page, as well. Some of the sidebar content has the same problem.

All in all, there's just too much content missing from the Kindle edition. With the hard copy being just ten dollars more, it's the better choice.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an SOA book focused on the contract, April 8, 2009

By 

Joe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web Service Contract Design and Versioning for SOA (Hardcover)

The "Web Service Contract Design & Versioning for SOA" text is yet another great book from the Thomas Erl SOA series. What's great about this book is that it focuses exclusively on the contract part of the service; too often, even while espousing the benefits of top-down service design, SOA literature treats contract design as a side-note. To truly be successful with SOA, the contract must be designed, developed, and governed independently of the service logic behind it. This book is filled with a wealth of information and examples of how to meet those goals; any serious SOA effort will benefit tremendously by the concepts presented in this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference for contract design, February 20, 2009

By 

Christopher Riley "criley" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Service Contract Design and Versioning for SOA (Hardcover)

Building quality contracts using Web Services via a top down approach can be scary for the uninitiated. This book provides a vendor-agnostic discussion and reference for service architects in the areas of schema, wsdl, policy and governance that is unmatched in my research and reading. Highly recommend this to understand the practical implementation of a top down approach.