Chris Peltz

Developers are beginning to develop more sophisticated Web services, exchanging complex XML documents rather than simple parameter types. As this shift takes place, development teams begin to grapple with different approaches to designing these Web services interfaces through the use of WSDL. As we've worked with a number of these teams, we've begun to discover some important best practices that can be applied, particularly in the use of XML Schemas in a Web services design. In this article, we will focus on four specific areas: XML Schema style, namespaces, XML and WSDL import for modularity, and use of schema types for platform interoperability. Through the use of these techniques, you will be able to achieve a higher degree of portability of your WSDL and XML Schemas and will realize improved reusability and interoperability between a broader collection of Web s... (more)

Design Strategies for Web Services Versioning

Application versioning has always been a challenge for the developer community. With the introduction of Web services, this issue becomes even more difficult as developers are dealing with a more distributed set of components that aren't necessarily under their control. A robust versioning strategy is needed to support multiple versions of Web services in development. This can allow for upgrades and improvements to be made to a Web service, while continuously supporting previously released versions. The right versioning strategy can maximize code reuse and provide a more managea... (more)

Web Services Orchestration and Choreography

Web services are rapidly emerging as the most practical approach for integrating a wide array of customer, vendor, and business-partner applications. While many companies have begun to deploy individual Web services, the real value will come when enterprises can connect services together, providing higher value to an organization. Early experience shows that to make the most of new Web services investments there must be a standard approach to Web services composition. IT organizations need the agility to adapt to customer requirements and changing market conditions. But existing ... (more)

Managing the WebLogic Platform with HP OpenView

In our earlier article (WLDJ, Vol. 3, issue 5), we discussed the importance of designing for manageability. Using a case study of an on-line shopping application, DizzyWorld, we showed the developer's perspective around application manageability. This included both the development of a JMX MBean and the instrumentation of a Java Page Flow on the BEA WebLogic Platform. In this article, we look at manageability from the operator's perspective. We will show how management metrics can be defined and mapped to JMX MBeans, and how those metrics can be collected and monitored with HP Ope... (more)

SOA Web Services XML: Why WSDM Matters

The world of IT management has changed a great deal since the early days of SNMP and network management. IT organizations today are building and deploying a wide range of systems and applications that must be managed in a consistent and reliable way. Applications are being built from the ground up using service-oriented design principles, and an IT manager can no longer look to a single machine to determine the health and availability of the services being delivered. Resources are much more distributed and interconnected, and they are being deployed at an alarming rate. For IT, t... (more)