Patent Application
20050027886
The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to a method and system for transforming non-web services enabled providers of a service so as to contribute to provisioning of such service to web services consumers.
In the past, if a particular service were to be provided to a web services consumer, the provider of such service would have to be web services enabled.
More and more services are becoming available which are written to the web services standard. In many situations, it is not particularly difficult to create a new service which is intended from the outset to be a web service enabled provider of service.
However, numerous services exist, such as proprietary services and functions and services which were previously written to an older, less ubiquitous standard. With the current paradigm, these non-web service enabled providers of services would need to be re-written so as to comply with the new web services standard. However, considerable expense can be expected to be incurred in upgrading these existing services so they can individually operate as service providers to web service consumers.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved systems and methods for transforming existing web services or transforming new services written to an old or proprietary standard, without the concomitant increases in inefficiencies of converting such services to be web services enabled service providers.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for transforming non-web services enabled services to web services enabled service providers in an efficient manner.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize a common transformer which translates messages between the non-web services enabled service provider and a web services consumer.
It is an advantage of the present invention to achieve improved efficiency in transforming non-web services enabled service providers so as to be capable of providing, with the help of the web services transformer, services to a web services consumer.
The present invention is a system and method for transforming non-web services enabled service providers, which is designed to satisfy the aforementioned needs, provide the previously stated objects, include the above-listed features, and achieve the already articulated advantages. The present invention is carried out in an “individual software conversion-less system” in a sense that the ordinary effort associated with individually converting a plurality of non-web services enabled services to a plurality of services which are capable of providing service to a web services consumer, has been greatly reduced.
The invention may be more fully understood by reading the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, in conjunction with the appended drawings wherein:
Now referring to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like matter throughout, and more specifically referring to
In general, the system 100 functions, in many ways, similar to prior art web services systems with a few exceptions.
WSU 102 is the end user or consumer of web services, which may be an individual at home with their personal computer (PC). Of course, many other examples of WSUs exist. The WSU 102 communicates with the UDDI server 104, as is done in the prior art. The WST 106 appears to the UDDI server 104 and the WSU 102 to be a plurality of typical self-contained individual web services. However, WST 106 is in fact a front-end translator and proxy for a network of non-web services enabled functional services 110 and 112. As such, the WST 106 transforms a plurality of non-web services enabled functional services to a plurality of virtual web services which appear to be independent, self-contained web services which are individually fully compliant with one or more web services industry standards employed by the WSU 102 and the UDDI server 104. It should be noted UDDI server 104 can be any functionally equivalent type of server irrespective of the details of whatever standard it employs.
A more detailed understanding of a particular embodiment of the present invention can be achieved by now referring to
In operation, the system shown in
Referring first to
Now referring more to
WST 106 then sends notification to the UDDI sever 104 that it has functional services 110 and 112 available. These functions are registered with the UDDI server 104, and the requirements for using these functions are also registered (see line 1).
Now the WSU 102, who is desirous of consuming some web services, registers with the UDDI server 104 and requests functional service 110, for example (see line 2). UDDI server 104 responds to WSU 102 with the location of functional service 110 and with the requirements for using that function (see line 3). Next, the WSU 102 contacts the WST 106 (because the location given by UDDI server 104 was a location of WST 106) and requests functional service 110. A negotiation which is common between web services consumers and web services providers will typically occur (see line 4). At this point, the request shown by line 4 is a request in compliance with one or more web services industry standards. The WST 106 passes the request via common communication interface 108 to functional service 110 (see line 5). At this point, the request is NOT fully compliant with web services industry standards. Then, functional service performs the requested service and provides a response (shown in lines 6 coupled to common communication interface 108). At this stage, the response from functional service 110 is not fully compliant with all the requisite web services standards.
The response is then received by CAPI 202, translated by translation logic 204, and made fully web services compatible by web services API 206. At this point, the response is sent (in compliance with the requisite web service standards) to WSU 102 (see the last line 6), and the WSU 102 has had its request met, and WSU 102 is unaware that the ultimate provider of the requested service was not an independent self-contained web service.
Throughout this description, numerous references are made to “web services”, which is a well-known term which is understood in the industry to describe services which are in compliance with one or more predetermined published industry standards for providing services over the web. One example of such an industry standard is the UDDI standard which is maintained by the OASIS, an international standards setting organization. Other published industry standards exist and are expected to be promulgated in the future by OASIS and other organizations. It is the intention of the present invention to apply to any such web services standard.
It is thought that the method and apparatus of the present invention will be understood from the foregoing description and that it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construct steps, and arrangement of the parts and steps thereof, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of their material advantages. The form herein described is merely a preferred exemplary embodiment thereof.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of Provisional Application No. 60/484,975 filed on Jul. 3, 2003, by the same two inventors as in this application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60484975 | Jul 2003 | US |
