CAiSE’02 Tutorial
Title: The Web-services phenomenon: Concepts Technologies Current Trends & Research Directions
Presenter: Michael P. Papazoglou, INFOLAB, TILBURG Univ., The Netherlands
Abstract:
Web-services are modular, self-describing, self-contained applications that are accessible over the Internet and can run remotely on a service provider’s site. Web-services constitute a distributed computing infrastructure made up of many different systems trying to communicate over the Internet to virtually form a single logical system. Web-services are an effective means for linking loosely coupled systems together using a technology that does not bind to a particular component model, programming language or platform. The modularity and flexibility of Web-services make them ideal for (e-business) cross-application integration. They form the building blocks for creating distributed applications that can be published to and accessed over the Internet and corporate intranets. Web-services consist of a set of open Internet standards that allow developers to implement distributed applications – using different tools provided by many different vendors – to create corporate applications that join together software modules from systems in diverse organisational departments or from different enterprises. In this way enterprises can mix and match Web-services to perform transactions with minimal programming effort. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject of Web services and present a sound framework for understating how Web services are deployed and used in business applications. In doing so we will overview the concepts, key technologies and current standards for Web service development and discuss possible research directions. This tutorial is divided in three broad parts:
1. Introduction to web-services:
In this part we will cover the characteristics of Web-services, explain the nature of problems solved by Web-services, and the differences between Web-services and Web-based applications -- such as those developed by Application Service Providers (ASPs). Subsequently, we will take a close look at a classification scheme for different types of Web-services, present the Web-services programming model in terms of synchronous vs. asynchronous (or RPC style vs. message-style) Web-services and explain their differences. Several examples of Web-services will be given and the differences between Web-services component software and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) will be highlighted.
2. The Web-services framework:
In this part we will present the service-oriented architecture and explain how emerging standards such as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), the Web-service description language (WSDL), and the Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) framework: are used to support core Web-service functionality. Subsequently, we will have a brief look at the Web-service Flow Language (WSFL) and illustrate how WSFL and XLANG are used to build applications that compose multiple web-services across different Web-service providers. This part will also explain how languages such as WSFL and XLANG relate to workflows and business process modelling.
3. Open problems and future research directions
In this final part we will cover several problem issues such as security, quality of service, payment and transaction management. We will also highlight future research directions, such as service matchmaking and discovery, the use of agent technology for Web-services, patterns for Web-services, Web-service composition and reusability problems, Web-services and peer-to-peer architectures, and so on. This tutorial is based on excerpts from the forthcoming book (June 2002): “Conducting Business Electronically: Technical and Organisational Implementations of an E-Business Strategy”, by M.P.Papazoglou and P.M.A.Ribbers (J. Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Bio:
Michael P. Papazoglou (mikep@kub.nl) is a full Professor and director of the Infolab at the Univ. of Tilburg in the Netherlands and a distinguished Professor at the Univ. of Trento in Italy. His scientific interests include cooperative information systems, object-oriented systems and modelling, distributed computing, digital libraries, electronic business and e-market places. Papazoglou serves on several committees and advisory boards for international journals and has chaired a number of well-known international conferences among which the IEEE Data Engineering, IEEE Distributed Computing, IEEE Digital Libraries, Cooperative Information Systems, and ER-Conceptual Modelling. He has authored or edited twelve books and over one hundred journal articles and refereed conference papers. He is a golden core member of the IEEE and a Distinguished Visitor of the IEEE.
Contact details:
Pr. Michael P. Papazoglou
website: http://infolab.kub.nl/people/mikep/