Web Services

Richard Sinnott
http://csperkins.org/teaching/2004-2005/gc5/
 Overview

• Web Services Overview

• Technologies associated with web services
– XML
– XML schema and namespaces
– SOAP
– WSDL

• Too much material for one lecture

– may not get through everything…
– Trying to bring class up to speed on course pre-requisites
– Any questions ask in labs, next lecture, …
Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow

• Technologies for Building Grids (AG - virtual lecture tomorrow)

– Ant, JAX-RPC, Web Servers, Apache Tomcat servlet containers,
deployment of applications into containers, …
 Web Services

UDDI registry,
Portal, ...

Locate service Register service

WSDL info

Communicate
through SOAP
Web Service
Client
Provider

WSDL info = how to interact, what operations, what

XML grammar flavour, …
Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow

Service Oriented Architecture is common approach

 Web Services
• Not a new idea
– Publish, find, bind

• Core languages and technologies involved

– XML
• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
• Simple API for XML (SAX),
• Document Object Model (DOM)
• Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
• Universal Description, Discovery and Integration of Web Services (UDDI)
• …
Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow
 XML is…

• …foundation for future Grid technologies

– ... an eXtensible Markup Language

– ... HTML on steroids

– ... a semi-structured data model

– ... an exchange syntax

– …the ASCII of the Web

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– ... a meta-language that allows for evolutionary systems

• XML constant but new markups, schemas …
 XML can be used to…
• … Exchange Data
– With XML, data can be exchanged between incompatible systems
• Converting the data to XML can greatly reduce this complexity and create data
that can be read by many different types of applications

• … Share Data
– With XML have a software and hardware-independent way of sharing data

• … Store Data
– XML can also be used to store data in files or in databases and applications
developed to store/retrieve information from the store, display the data etc
• XML databases now exist (Xindice, …)
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• XML based query languages (XPath, XLink, XQuery, …)

 XML can be used to…
• …describe meta-data
– information about the structure and meaning of data
– can be used to perform more intelligent web searches for
goods or information
• Search for all genomic data produced within the last 3 years associated
with the common house fly
– (Rather than return every web site that mentions flies, genomes, …!)

• …support operation invocations, e.g. RPC

– Information in XML documents parsed and used to invoke services
• Simple Object Access Protocol – SOAP
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- A lightweight protocol for exchange of information in a decentralised, distributed

environment
– Web-Sites expose interfaces for interrogation
 XML History
• SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
– ISO Standard, 1986, for data storage & exchange
– Meta-language for defining languages (through Document Type
Definitions and Schemas)
– A famous SGML language: HTML!!
– Separation of content and display
– SGML standard is 600 pages long

• XML
– W3C - http://www.w3.org/XML/ recommendation in 1998
– XML specification is 26 pages long
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– … but designed for extensibility and broad applicability!

 XML and HTML
• The main difference between XML and HTML

– XML was designed to describe data and to focus on what data is

– HTML was designed to display data and to focus on how data looks

– HTML is about displaying information

– XML is about describing information

– HTML has predefined tags (<p>, <h1>, …)

– XML developers define own tags
Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow
 XML Basics
• XML is a cross-platform, software and hardware independent tool
for transmitting information

– XML was designed to describe data

– XML uses a Document Type Definition (DTD) to describe format and

content of legal XML documents
• … now deprecated

– or an XML Schema to describe the structure of legal XML documents

• Based upon XML syntax
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• Supports data types

• Extensibility
• …
 XML Basics …Ctd
• XML was created to structure, store and to send information
• The following example is an XML memo to Rich from John
<memo>
<to>Rich</to>
<from>John</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Stop making me use GT3!</body>
</memo>
– The memo has sender/receiver information, a header and a message body

– But this XML document does not DO anything

• It is just pure information wrapped in XML tags
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• Someone must write software to send, receive or display it

 XML Basics …ctd
• An example XML document
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> …XML declaration (version, character
encoding used)
<memo> …root element
<to>Rich</to> …child element
<from>John</from> …child element
<heading>Reminder</heading> …child element
<body> Stop making me use GT3!</body> …child element
</memo> …end of root element

• All XML elements must have a closing tag

– (Except for opening declaration)
• In HTML some elements do not have to have a closing tag
– e.g. <p>This is a paragraph <p>This is another paragraph
• Unlike HTML, XML tags are case sensitive
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– i.e. tag <Memo> is different from tag <memo>

• <Memo>This is incorrect</memo>
• <memo>This is correct</memo>
 XML Basics …ctd
• All XML elements must be properly nested
– Improper nesting of tags is required in XML
• In HTML some elements can be improperly nested within each other:
– <b><i>This text is bold and italic</b></i>
• In XML all elements must be properly nested within each other:
– <b><i>This text is bold and italic</i></b>

• All XML documents must have a single root element

– All XML documents must contain a single tag pair to define a root element
• All other elements must be within this root element
• All elements can have sub elements (child elements)
• Sub elements must be correctly nested within their parent element:
<root> <root1>
<child> <child1>…</child1>
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<subchild>.....</subchild> </root1>
</child> <root2>
</root> <child2>…</child2>
</root2>
 XML Basics …ctd
• Elements defined with element element… eh??? ;o)
– User defines names, but
– …can’t start with number/punctuation character, no spaces, no >, <, :
• Can be empty
– <name/> = = <name> </name>
• Attributes name/value pairs used once per element to provide
extra information
– <car price=“expensive” price=“cheap”>myCar</car> …error
• Attributes vs elements
– <car><colour>red</colour></car> vs <car colour=“red”>
• General rule is elements provide logical structuring of information and
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attributes characteristics of the information

 XML Basics …ctd
• XML elements can have attributes in name/value pairs just like in HTML
– In XML the attribute value must always be quoted
• it is illegal to omit quotation marks around attribute values

<?xml version="1.0" encoding=“UTF-8"?>

<memo date=14/10/2004>
<to>Rich</to>
<from>John</from>
…
</memo>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding=“UTF-8"?>

<memo date="14/10/2004">
Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow

<to>Rich</to>
<from>John</from>
…
</memo>
 XML Basics …ctd
• Comments in XML
– The syntax for writing comments in XML is similar to that of HTML
<!-- This is a comment -->

• Whitespace
<?xml version="1.0" encoding=“UTF-8"?>
<memo date="14/10/2004">
<to>Rich </to>

<from>John</from>
<body> Stop making me use
GT3!</body>
</memo>

• …XML processors must pass all non-markup characters to application

– also have xml:space = preserve/default if whitespace significant
• There is nothing special about XML
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– It is just plain text with the addition of some XML tags enclosed in angle brackets
– But… XML combined with software to process tags, contents, leads to very open
“internet scale” systems
 XML Basics …ctd
• How can XML be used?
– Need to produce vocabulary for meaningful exchanges, for tools to
process
• Tools available to parse XML and ensure well-formed (syntactically correct)
– must begin with the XML declaration
– must have one unique root element
– all start tags must match end-tags
– XML tags are case sensitive
– all elements must be closed
– all elements must be properly nested
– all attribute values must be quoted
– XML entities must be used for special characters (&gt = >, &lt = <, …)
• But flexibility comes through defining XML that can be validated
– Legal grammars/format of content for exchanges
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• Previously done by XML Document Type Definitions

– Now XML Schemas accepted as best way to achieve this
– XML Schemas define the legal building blocks of an XML document
 XML Schema Basics
• Even if XML documents are well-formed they can still
contain errors
– With XML Schemas many errors can be caught
– Need to understand what XML tags/values mean…
• An XML Schema:
– defines elements that can appear in a document
– defines attributes that can appear in a document
– defines which elements are child elements
– defines the order of child elements
– defines the number of child elements
– defines whether an element is empty or can include text
– defines data types for elements and attributes
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– defines default and fixed values for elements and attributes

 XML Schema Basics
• One of the greatest strengths of XML Schemas (over DTDs) is
the support for data types
– With the support for data types it is easier to:
• describe permissible document content
– <xsd:element name="age" type="xsd:integer"/>
– <age>true</age> …error
• validate the correctness of data
– 2004-10-9 = 10th September 2004 or 9th October 2004
– <date type="date">2004-10-9</date>
– Schema defines format YYYY-MM-DD
• define restrictions on data
– <xsd:element name="name" type="xsd:string" fixed=“Rich" />
<name /> …ok, i.e. can be null
<name>Rich</name> …ok
<name>John</name> …error
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• define data patterns/formats

– <xsd:element name="name" type="xsd:string" default=“Rich" />
<name>Rich</name> = = <name />
• convert data between different data types
 XML Schema Basics …ctd
• XML Schemas are extensible
– With an extensible Schema definition you can:
• Reuse your Schema in other Schemas
– can use import/include elements
• Create your own data types derived from standard types
• Reference multiple schemas from the same document
• Key to this are Namespaces
<car> <customer>
<name>Volvo</name> <name>Rich</name>
</car> </customer>
– Now consider this XML document
<customer>
<name>Rich</name> …name element child of customer element
<order>
<car>
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<name>Volvo</name> …name element child of car element

</car>
</order>
</customer> …..parsers cannot tell difference between name elements unless instructed
 XML Schema Basics …ctd
• XML Namespaces allow to overcome this restriction
<customer>
<cust:name xmlns:cust=“cust-ns-uri”>Rich</cust:name>
<order>
<car>
<car:name xmlns:car =“car-ns-uri”>Volvo</car:name>
</car>
</order>
</customer>

• Note
– URI = uniform resource identifier (formatted string) has two flavours
• URL (uniform resource locator), e.g. “http://www.nesc.ac.uk/projects”
– includes information on where to find resource (IP address/port number/path…)
• URN (uniform resource name), e.g. urn:uuid:12345
– Location independent (name space identifier, name specific string)
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• Namespaces define scope of names/variables

– e.g. JAVA packages, C++ #include…
 XML Schema Basics …ctd
• Can declare a name space in two ways
– Default declaration
<customer xmlns=“cust-ns-uri”>
<name>Rich</name>
<order>
<car>Volvo</car>
</order>
</customer>
• All child elements of customer use “cust-ns-uri” namespace
• Normally used only for local schema usage

– Explicit declaration
<co: customer xmlns:co =“cust-ns-uri”>
<co:name>Rich</co:name>
<co:order>
<co:car>
<co:name>Volvo</co:name>
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</co:car>
</co:order>
</co:customer>…co = shorthand notation for “cust-ns-uri”

• Normally used when schema for external usage

 XML Schema Basics …ctd
• True power of namespaces when using elements from different
namespaces
<cust: customer xmlns:cust =“cust-ns-uri”
xmlns:ord = “ord-ns-uri” >
<cust:name>Rich</cust:name>
<ord:order>
<ord:car>
<ord::name>Volvo</ord:name>
<ord:car>
</ord:order>
</cust:customer>

• Different sets of rules applied for customer names, order information

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 XML Schema Basics …ctd

• Common namespace prefixes

xsi http://www.w3c.org/2000/10/XMLSchema-instance
namespace governing XMLSchema instances

xsd http://www.w3c.org/2000/10/XMLSchema
namespace of schema governing XMLSchema (.xsd) files

tns by convention this refers to “this” document

refers to the current XML document

wsdl http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/
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WSDL namespace

soap http://schema.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/
WSDL SOAP binding namespace
 XML Schema Basics …ctd

• A simple schema
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
targetNamespace="http://www.nesc.ac.uk/nescSchema" xmlns="http://www.nesc.ac.uk/ns" >

<xsd:element name=“memo">
<xsd:complexType> … as contains other elements
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="to" type="xsd:string"/> ...simple type
<xsd:element name="from" type="xsd:string"/> ...simple type
<xsd:element name="heading" type="xsd:string"/> ...simple type
<xsd:element name="body" type="xsd:string"/> ...simple type
</xsd:sequence> (as no other elements)
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>
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• Target namespace (intended namespace) against which XML document should be

validated
 XML Schema Basics …ctd

• Common primitive data types used in schemas

• xsd:string
• xsd:decimal
• xsd:integer
• xsd:boolean
• xsd:date
• xsd:time
• …
• More complex structures supported also,
– e.g. element groups for logically associated elements
• xsd:sequence (ordering elements important),
• xsd:choice (some elements),
• xsd:all (ordering unimportant)
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– Can have logical groupings of attributes also

 More Information on XML

• This is a very short summary of XML, XML Schema, XML

namespaces

• Lots more information available

– http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

– http://www.xmlfiles.com/xml/

– Are good beginner guides

Copyright © 2004 University of Glasgow
 SOAP Overview

• SOAP provides a standard ‘envelope’ within which a message to

a web service can be delivered

• SOAP is mechanism (protocol) for transferring information

(messages) between applications which may be widely distributed

• SOAP says nothing about the content of the message – the sender
and the receiver must understand the message for themselves

• SOAP is part of a communication stack

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 Basic Web Services Architecture

CONSUMER (CLIENT) PROVIDER (SERVER)

Container
HTTP HTTP/SOAP request (e.g. Tomcat,
Web server
Globus, …)
SOAP internet (e.g. Apache)

envelope HTTP/SOAP response Servlet

• Servlet is server side application running in container that

processes SOAP information
• Web server extracts information from http/soap envelope and
directs to appropriate service being hosted in container
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 SOAP Message Structure

• Each SOAP message will have: Transport protocol

(http, smtp, ftp, …)
– An Envelope
SOAP ENVELOPE
– A Header (optional)
SOAP HEADER
– A Body
– The Body may contain a Fault SOAP BODY
element
FAULT

<?xml version=‘1.0’ encoding=‘UTF-8’?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP_ENV=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/”
xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance”
xmlns:xsd=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema”>
<SOAP-ENV:Header>
…typically used for authentication, transaction support, payment information, or other capabilities
…mustUnderstand attribute can be used to ensure that header is processed
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…actor attribute used for indicating recipient of message (not needed if only two parties involved)
</SOAP-ENV:Header>
<SOAP_ENV:Body>
…mandatory child of envelope element used for carrying payload of SOAP message
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
 SOAP Over HTTP

• HTTP supports two request methods

– GET
• send parameters in URL
• typically used to request web pages from web server
– POST
• Send data to server in payload that comes after http header
• POST payloads can be indefinite length
• SOAP requests sent via HTTP POST
– Consider HTTP POST request with simple SOAP message
POST /someOpLocation HTTP/1.1 …someOpLocation = SOAP endpoint
HOST: 130.29.25.3
Content Type: text/xml …normally text/plain for web pages
Content Length: 500 …total length of message (XML BLOAT)
SOAPMethodName: urn:www.nesc.ac.uk:someOp#op …op is method to be called of someOp class
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<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP_ENV=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/”
xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance”
xmlns:xsd=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema”>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns:op xmlns:ns=“someOp”><name>op-inputs</name></ns:op>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
 SOAP Attachments

• Large quantities or binary data Transport protocol

may not fit well into a XML MIME header
SOAP message.
SOAP ENVELOPE

• In which case it can be sent ‘out SOAP HEADER

of band’ by attaching it to a
SOAP message
SOAP BODY
• Analogy : email attachments. FAULT
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Attachment
 Attaching Files to SOAP Messages

• To add a file to a SOAP message a tag can be added within the

body of the message

<?xml version=‘1.0’ encoding=‘UTF-8’?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP_ENV=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/”
xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance”
xmlns:xsd=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema”>
<SOAP_ENV:Body>

<attachment href=“{URL}”/>

</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
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 SOAP Fault Handling
<?xml version=‘1.0’ encoding=‘UTF-8’?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP_ENV=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/”
xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance”
xmlns:xsd=“http://www.w3c.org/1999/XMLSchema”>
<SOAP_ENV:Body>

<SOAP-ENV:Fault>
<faultcode>SOAP-ENV:Server</faultcode>
<faultstring>Test fault</faultstring>
<faultactor>/soap/servlet/rpcrouter</faultactor>
<detail>
..
</detail>
</SOAP-ENV:Fault>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
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 SOAP Implementations

• There are several implementations of the SOAP Specification

– Microsoft with Visual Basic, C#, .net languages/environments
– Apache Axis with Java
– SOAP::Lite with Perl
– Systinet WASP with C++, Java
– GLUE with Java

• More information on SOAP available at

– http://www.w3schools.com/soap/default.asp
– http://www.topxml.com/soap/default.asp
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 WSDL Overview

• Web Service Description Language (WSDL) describes a service’s

exposed interface
– It is what a client sees of a web (Grid) service
• Contact between client and service

• WSDL describes what a web service can do, where it can be

found, how to invoke it

– Consider WSDL as XML grammar that describes web services (and in

general any network service) as collections of communications endpoints
that are able to exchange information with one another
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 WSDL Document Overview

• WSDL documents use the following elements

– Definitions
• Associates web services with their namespaces
– Types
• Containers for data type definitions (schemas)
– Message
• Abstract typed definition of data contained in message
– Operations
• Abstract descriptions of actions that web service supports
– PortType
• Sets of operations supported by one or more endpoints
– Binding
• Specification of protocol and data format for particular portType
– Port
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• an endpoint defined in terms of binding and network address, e.g. URL

– Service
• Collection of related endpoints
 The <types>

• The types element contains XML Schemas defining the data types
that are to be passed to and from the web service

<types>
<schema targetNamespace="http://myExample.com/myService.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/XMLSchema">
<element name=“myRequest">
. . .
</element>
</schema>
</types>
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 The <message>

• The <message> element is used to define the messages that will

be exchanged between the client and the service endpoints
• These message elements contain <part> elements, which uses
types defined in the types element

<message name=“getMyInput">
<part name="body" element="xsd1:MyRequest"/>
</message>
<message name=“getMyOutput">
<part name="body" element="xsd1:MyParameter"/>
</message>

• All the parts are namespace qualified

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 Types of <operation>

• There are four distinct types of operation

• Synchronous
– Request-response
• service receives a message and sends a reply
– Solicit-response
• service sends a message and receives a reply message
• Asynchronous
– One-way
• service receives a message
– Notification
• service sends a message
• Presence and order of input/output elements in WSDL defines the type of
operation.
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• Request-response <input><output>
• Solicit-response <output><input>
• One-way <input> only
• Notification <output> only
 The <portType> element

• The types and messages have been defined, but they have not been defined
in terms of where they fit in the functionality of the web service

• This is done within <portType> and <operation> elements

<portType name="StockQuotePortType">
<operation name="GetLastTradePrice">
<input message="tns:GetLastTradePriceInput"/>
<output message="tns:GetLastTradePriceOutput"/>
</operation>
</portType>

• A portType is analogous to a class

• An operation is analogous to a method in that class
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 The <binding> element

• This element is used to define the mechanism that the client will
actually use to interact with the web service, e.g. SOAP
• The binding element defines the protocol specific information for
the portTypes previously defined
<soap:binding style=“rpc” transport=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http/”>

– Indicates using SOAP binding extensions to map the operations

– alternative to “rpc” is “document”.
– GET/POST use <http:binding…>
– MIME use <mime:binding…..>
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 The <service> element

• The final component of a WSDL file is the <service> element

• The <service> element defines <port> elements that specify
where requests should be sent
<service name=“MyService">
<port name=“MyServicePort" binding="tns:MyServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://MyExample.com/MyService"/>
</port>
</service>

• The <soap:address> subelement identifies the URL of the

service

• The precise content of <port> elements will be dependent upon

the mechanism, i.e. SOAP, HTTP or MIME
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 Conclusions

• Knowledge of XML, XML Schema, XML namespaces, SOAP,

WSDL fundamental to web (Grid) services

• Grid services (based on OGSI) extend web services with further

capabilities
– Persistence/transience
– Statefulness
– inheritance of portTypes
– service data
– …
– Explore this with GT3 in lab session on Monday
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• Next (virtual) lecture focuses upon technologies for building Grid

services