What are Web Services? A BT Conferencing white paper

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2 Table of contents What are Web Services? 3 Why Web Services? 3 The BT Conference Service 3 Future Development 4 Conclusion 4 2

3 3 What are Web Services? Web services are self-contained business functions that operate over the Internet. They are written to strict specifications to work together and with other similar kinds of components. 1 A Web service consists of an endpoint created by the service provider and a client application created by the service consumer. The strict specifications are encoded in a WSDL (Web Services Definition Language) document published by the service provider. This document is a languageand platform-independent XML document that specifies the format of input and output for the Web service endpoint. Communication to and from the Web service endpoint is also accomplished via XML, specifically SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages. Because the interface between client and server is pure XML, the language and other internal aspects of the client and server applications is irrelevant to the other. For example, BT Conferencing has developed a Java Web service endpoint and an accompanying Microsoft.NET client application. Why Web Services? The original Internet made it possible to send and receive and to share access to files. The World Wide Web added a software layer that made it easier to publish and access other content. The final development has been the emergence of Web services, enriching the software layer with application functionality. The task of the Web services infrastructure is to support commercial-grade application functionality. 2 Web services allow businesses to integrate their systems while leaving each the freedom to make independent decisions about operating systems, languages and databases. In addition, a service provider does not need to reveal anything about its internal systems, since the entire external interface specification is contained in the published WSDL documents. On the other side, a consumer does not need to open his/her systems to access by the service provider. The Web service endpoint will return SOAP (text-only) messages to the client, and the client application has complete freedom in handling them. The BT Conference Service BT Conferencing is the first organization to develop a Web service named Conference Service that enables a customer to create and manage video conference reservations through software installed at the customer s location. At first glance, this product may seem redundant in the face of BT Conferencing s existing online scheduling application, Engage Meeting Manager, especially considering the similarity of features. However, there are important differences between the two. While Engage Meeting Manager s interface is any standard Web browser, the Conference Service requires client software at the customer s location. This is the principle disadvantage of any Web service compared to a standard Web-based application. This requirement, however, unlocks the advantage of and reason for the Conference Service: the client software can be completely controlled by the customer. Obvious uses for this advantage include integration with existing systems at the customer s end, and control of the user interface. Figure 1 shows the basic structure of the Conference Service endpoint as well as the typical structure of a client application. Each element of the diagram will be explained in further detail. The WSDL document provides the basis for both the server endpoint and the client application. A software utility is used to generate stubs or skeletons from the information contained in the WSDL. BT Conferencing uses Sun s Java Axis Servlet to generate server-side Java skeletons. The Axis Servlet can be used to generate client-side Java stubs as well, and other utilities exist for other languages. The Axis Servlet is also used to answer Web service calls. This servlet communicates with the HTTP client via SOAP messages, and with the skeletons via standard Java method calls. The skeletons, in turn, communicate with BT Figure 1. Basic structure of the Conference Service endpoint in a typical client application structure

4 Conferencing s proprietary server endpoint implementation, which accomplishes the processing of the various Conference Service tasks. Communication between the server endpoint and the client application is currently secured via encrypted communication over HTTPS. Transmission in both directions is secure, and non-encrypted messages to the Conference Service (over standard HTTP) are blocked. BT Conferencing is continually exploring the latest security options and will implement appropriate and necessary security measures as they become available. The client application requires three main components: an XML-RPC API, stubs and the application itself. The XML-RPC API is what actually sends and receives messages to and from BT conference service. This is typically a third-party product. As mentioned earlier, the stubs are generated by a client code generator, also generally provided by a third party. These stubs provide an API accessible to a particular programming language. The stubs translate the messages they receive to XML and pass them to the XML-RPC API. The stub receives an XML message back, and in turn translates it into the appropriate return type for the client application. BT Conferencing s Conference Service makes no specification about the final client application. The only requirement for successful operation is that the application conforms to the interface presented by the Web service stubs. Within those constraints, customers have complete freedom to manage messages or integrate with internal systems. Some valuable applications of this freedom include: Integration with existing scheduling application such as Microsoft Outlook Integration with customer s database for resource scheduling, video conferencing equipment data, etc Provide a custom front-end to BT Conferencing s reservation service Present data from Conference Service and customer systems in the same interface Future Development BT Conferencing is always working to meet customers needs. Some of those needs will include additional Conference Service features. This presents a problem, because additional features generally require additions to the Conference Service WSDL, and if the WSDL document changes, any existing client applications will be unable to use the service. To overcome this difficulty, BT Conferencing continues to support existing versions of the Conference Service for a minimum of six months. At the time a new version is released, Conference Service customers are notified of the change and informed of the date when the previous version will no longer be supported. Typically, customer development effort to move to a new version without using any of its new features is minimal. BT Conferencing will provide advice and guidance in moving to a newer version, although we cannot commit development resources to customers client applications. Conclusion BT Conferencing s Conference Service offers substantial advantages over traditional conference reservation methods as well as other online scheduling applications. As with any online system, phone calls to the service provider are not needed and secure transmission protocols are used to protect both the customer and the service provider. Beyond these simple advantages, the Conference Service puts control back in the customers hands by allowing them to create their own scheduling systems to integrate with BT Conferencing. In addition, despite the thin-client nature of Engage Schedule and other Web-based applications, a compatible Web browser is still required. Using Web services, the rules of the client application are decided by the customer. It is even possible to create a Web services client that integrates invisibly with an existing scheduling interface and has no user interface of its own. Given the moderate development efforts required to take advantage of these benefits, the Conference Service can become a valuable solution to many customers scheduling needs. Endnotes 1 Alan Kotok, Tell me about Web services, and make it quick, 06 March articleview/429/1/61/ 2 Phil Wainewright, Web Services Infrastructure, October

5 Offices worldwide The services described in this publication are subject to availability and may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment are provided subject to British Telecommunications plc s respective standard conditions of contract. Nothing in this publication forms any part of any contract. British Telecommunications plc Newport Ave. Ext. Quincy, MA USA Designed by BT Conferencing US-2009/09/01