web services: are we there yet? jim farmer sakai community liaison 1 st annual conference on...
TRANSCRIPT
Web Services: Are We There Yet?
Jim Farmer
Sakai Community Liaison 1st Annual Conference on Technology & Standards
Postsecondary Education Standards Council
2 May 2004, Arlington, Virginia
Publisher’s Note
• Web Services is not within the current scope of the Sakai Project. Chief Architect Charles Severance expects the use of Web Services in Sakai software later this year.
• uPortal is a project of the JA-SIG Collaborative led by Carl Jacobson at the University of Delaware and funded, in part, from the Sakai Project.
• im+m has contributed to uPortal, and the Meteor and California Electronic Transcript Project prototypes referenced in this presentation.
• The author is Chairman of the Board of im+m and Sigma Systems Inc., contracted by the University of Michigan for the Sakai Educational Partners Program, and volunteers as uPortal Project Administrator.
The Promise, in 2002 …
Web services defined
“Web services are a set of standards for how systems connect to each other, and communicate information. It’s an extension of a distributed computing framework, which provides an open standard that most software vendors support.”
Chandra VekatapathMarket Manager, Web Services, IBM Corporation,
TheBusiness Integrator, Second Quarter 2002, pp. 5-11
Value of Web services
“[Web services] provides a facility for an application or a system to collaborate with another application or systems regardless of how the applications are implemented, regardless of where they are implemented, or on which platform they are implemented.”
Chandra VekatapathMarket Manager, Web Services, IBM Corporation,
TheBusiness Integrator, Second Quarter 2002, pp. 5-11
The business caseOriginally, the exchange of data with others.Now, integration between disparate application, disparate computer systems, disparate operating systems, disparate programming languages—the Enterprise Application Integration EAI bus.
___________________________________________
”Getting access to stove-piped data is the primary reason for implementing Web services.”
Uttam NasrsuGIGA Information Group
At the FSA CIO Update ConferenceArlington, Virginia, May 8, 2002
Value of Web services technologyOpen standards Web service projects are taking one-fourth the time and costing one-fifth comparable projects using traditional technology. Performance is 2 to 10 times better than expected.– HFC Bank - IFX credit card application using XML,
SOAP and XSLT– Deutsche Bank Bauspar - FixML security transaction
integration using XML messages and XSL transformations
– Hypo Vereinsbank - IntegrationBased on presentations at the
XSLT [Invitational] Conference Oxford, University, April 8-9, 2001
“Best of Breed” strategy
“With Web services, best of breed becomes more feasible.”“Web services will make best of breed more cost effective.”
Rick Bergquist, CTO of PeopleSoftas quoted by Heather Harreld and Mark
Jones in “Chasing suite success,” InfoWorld, Nr. 24,
June 17, 2002.
The Reality, in 2004 …
Standards, then and now2002 2004
Message XML 1.0 Feb 1998
XML 1.1 Feb 2004
Transport SOAP 1.0 May 2000
SOAP 1.2 Jun 2003
Addressing WS-Addressing Mar 2004
Security WS-Security Apr 2004 SAML 1.1 Sep 2003
Attachment WS-I Attachments 1.0 Dec 2003
Standards, then and now2002 2004
Transaction Processing
WS-Reliable Messaging Mar 2004 (IBM)
Services Description
WSDL 1.0 Sep 2000
WSDL 1.2 Jun 2003 Working draft only
Directory Services
DSML 1.0 Dec 1999
DSML 2.0 Oct 2002
Directory UDDI 2.0 Jul 2002
UDDI 3.0 Jul 2002
Digital Signature
PDF/A Jul 2003; with PKI certificate, likely late 2004
Request, response model
Organization
A
Service 1
Organization
B
Service 1
Organization
A
Service 2
Request
Response
Alternative responseusing WS-Addressing
(e.g. errors requiring special handling)
Basic Web Services
JA-S
IG W
orks
hop
Seri
esBuilding web services
• Web services architecture overview
Web service requestor UDDI Service
find
look up web service
Web service provider
bind
publish
Register Web Service(at development time)
Retrieve WSDLDefinition
4
1
3
2
Call Web Service
WSDL Document
WSDL Document
call
Lesson learned – “simple”
JA-S
IG W
orks
hop
Seri
esWhy XML and SOAP?
“[XML and SOAP] will become a widely implemented ‘standard’ because they are simple.”
Barry WalshUniversity of Indiana
at the FSA CIO Update ConferenceArlington, Virginia May 8, 2002
Then …
JA-S
IG W
orks
hop
Seri
esWeb services in higher education
• Digital library search and retrieval (Columbia, Cornell)
• Transcripts (California Community Colleges, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Ohio)
• Student Aid (NCHELP, U.S. Department of Education)
• Security (Internet 2 Shibboleth)
• Portals (J A-SIG)
Now…in higher education• Digital library search and retrieval (WSRP:
University of Hull)
• Transcripts (U.K. Further Education)
• Student Records (Denmark universities, National Student Clearinghouse)
• Student Aid (NCHELP Meteor)
• Security (Internet 2 Shibboleth)
• Portals (WSRP: Michigan Technological University for JA-SIG)
Are We There Yet?
Yes, Meteor financial aid data
• Since 2002, a system for exchanging data among the student loan industry in order to present a consolidated view to the student borrower.
• Now, a system that can be installed in the campus portal or Web page and may use local authentication
The Meteor model
JA-S
IG W
orks
hop
Seri
esMeteor prototype (January 2001)
Web ServicesHTML
MeteorXML
StudentStudent Access ProviderAccess Provider Data Provider Data Provider
Meteor demonstrated …
• XML document handling
• SOAP functionality, performance
• Federated authentication
with dynamic Levels of Assurance
• Display via XML and XSL Transformations
and used open source code
Gleason’s “Transitive Trust”
Yes, JA-SIG uPortal
Mon, Dec 8, 2003JA-SIG Conference, Miami, FL
Producer
Consumer
WSRP/uPortal Scenarios
Consumer/Producer
Consumer
WSRP
WSRP
WSRP
WSRP
WSRP
SOAP
SOAP
SOAP
SOAP
Producer
Swing
WSRP
WSRP
SOAP
WSRP
WSRP works!
Mon, Dec 8, 2003JA-SIG Conference, Miami, FL
WSRP Channel
Possibly, Federal Student Aid
Web Services - How do they compliment FSA Strategies?
• Build/Leverage in place XML Schemas
• Ease Data Integration concerns
• Assist in the movement from batch process to web based “real-time” information exchange
• Provide means for accessing FSA internal systems as well as joint development of standards and access with external parties
• Further FSA’s ability to match customer expectations - parallel convenience/accessibility of commercial industry
• As Messaging Maturity and Capability increases Web Services are a clear next step
March 4, 2003
Unlikely, California transcripts
• California community colleges unable to implement or support Web Services technology
• XML implementation of California-specific data
Why not?“[California Community Colleges consultant] Joseph Giroux said [lack of new staff] has a significant impact on new technology, such as the Linux/Apache/Tomcat implementations to support uPortal. He said most colleges would not be able to implement real-time electronic transcripts at their campus. He felt that a central service would be needed by many colleges, and separate installations—server and software—would be required to support electronic transcripts in others.”
“Comments about the California Community Colleges: A Conversation with Tish McNamara and Joseph Giroux,” September 10, 2003
However, CCC demonstrated
• Bi-directional conversions between EDI and PESC XML
• Feasible use of PESC XML transcript using Notes fields
• Web Services prototype– Multi-page, role-specific displays
An observation …
• Web Services technology is available, tested, and cost effective.
• The market has confirmed acceptance of the technology.
• The use of Web Services now is a business decision.
The future …
• Someone is going to do Web Services and receive many of the benefits.
• Will you be a participant or observer?• Collaboration makes it work, and everyone
benefits. uPortal may have been the most successful; Sakai has the most potential.
• Facilitating the implementation of these technologies is PESC’s mission.
Permissions
Sakai and JA-SIG publications are in the public domain and can be freely reproduced.
These presentations may contain material reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Users are requested to comply with any copyright restrictions and to appropriately reference any materials that are used in their own works.