XML Web Services Working Group Pilot Projects: Business Cases, Architectures, and Demonstrations

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XML Web Services Working Group Pilot Projects
Business Cases, Architectures, and Demonstrations

• Brand Niemann, Chair and US EPA
• Enterprise Architecture Boot-camp 7 Steps to
  Success
• Wednesday, April 2, 2003, 9-1030 a.m.
• Secure E-Business Summit 2003
• April 1-2, 2003, Hilton Crystal City, Arlington,
  VA

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Overview

• 1. Background
• 2. Architecture Applied to Web Services
• 3. Global XML Web Services Architecture (GXA)
• 4. Tree of Knowledge Technologies
• 5. Pilot Projects
• 6. Contact Information

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1. Background

• Chartered by the CIO Councils Architecture and
  Infrastructure Committee (AIC) in August 2002 and
  Realigned under the Emerging Technologies
  Subcommittee in October 2002 to
• Facilitate the use of this emerging technology in
  the e-Government initiatives and in the
  development of the Federal Enterprise
  Architecture in conjunction with the development
  of architectural governance and component
  architectures for the Federal enterprise.
• The priorities and metrics are
• Meetings
• Pilots
• Collaboration and cooperation.
• Web site and ListServ (see Contact Information).

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1. Background

• Definitions
• A Web Service is a software system identified by
  a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are
  defined and described using XML. Its definition
  can be discovered by other software systems.
  These systems may then interact with the Web
  service in a manner prescribed by its definition,
  using XML based messages conveyed by Internet
  protocols.
• A Component Service is a software object, meant
  to interact with other components, encapsulating
  certain functionality or a set of
  functionalities. A component has a clearly
  defined interface and conforms to a prescribed
  behavior common to all components within an
  architecture
• A Registry is a system entity that provides
  Service and Service Provider information.
• Source W3C Web Services Architecture and Web
  Services Glossary.

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1. Background
Source Web Services and More Integrating
Business Processes and Information Across
Agencies-David Booth, W3C Fellow, FedWeb, October
29, 2002.

• Representing Semantics
• Owners of Client and Service must agree on
  semantics
• Can be verbal or written (preferably)
• Can be human-oriented (e.g., English) or
  machine-processable (e.g., RDF)
• Ideally, Web Service Description should point to
  semantics
• E.g. "targetNamespace" URL
• My recommendation Web Service Description should
  reference its semantics.

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2. Architecture Applied to Web Services

• Business modelers seek to represent business
  concepts with business components to limit
  complexity and costs, to support reuse of
  business components, speed up the development
  cycle, etc.
• The Web Services model can be thought of as the
  next step in the evolution of business components
  whereas business components are large,
  recursively defined collections of objects, Web
  Services should be relatively small,
  self-organizing components with well-defined,
  dynamic interfaces.
• Just as Enterprise Architecture is about multiple
  views of complex software systems, Topic Maps are
  multiple views of the same content repository for
  different users.

Source Chapter 14 Architecting Web Services, in
XML and Web Services Unleashed, 2002, Sams, Ron
Schmelzer, et. al., pp. 592-628.
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2. Architecture Applied to Web Services

• Software architects need to understand the
  paradigm shift of Web Services and communicate it
  to their teams as well as their management.
• The 41 View Model of Software Architecture
  popularized by Philippe Kruchten of Rational
  Software
• The architect has clear vision seeing the
  elephant from all four views, not the four
  separate views of the four blind men. The
  architect has a comprehensive picture of the
  elephant.
• Each of the four main views takes the perspective
  of key stakeholders in the development process.
  The fifth view overlaps the other views and plays
  a special role.

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2. Architecture Applied to Web Services

• The 41 View Model of Software Architecture
• The Implementation Architectural View The Web
  Services Technology Stack.
• The Logical Architectural View Composition of
  Web Services.
• The Deployment Architectural View From
  Application Servers to Peer-to-Peer.
• The Process Architectural View Life in the
  Runtime.
• Use-Case View Users That Know What They Want a
  Web Services Architecture to Do (not the case at
  this time).

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2. Architecture Applied to Web Services
The 41 View Model of Software Architecture
Applied to Web Services
Programmers Software Management
End User Functional Requirements
Implementation (Development or Component) View
Logical (design) View
Use-Case View
Process View
Deployment (Physical) View
System Engineering Platforms
SOA Architects JIT Integration of Web Services
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3. Global XML Web Services Architecture (GXA)

• The Global XML Web Services Architecture is
  poised to play a major role in advancing the
  adoption of Web services through its robust
  specification of mechanisms for Web services such
  as security, policy, coordination, federation,
  and routing.
• Several GXA specifications (WS-Transaction,
  WS-Coordination) appear to be plausible likely
  candidates for inclusion in W3Cs upcoming Web
  Services Choreography Language Specification.
• Source Joseph M. Chiusano, Booz Allen
  Hamilton, Open Source for National and Local
  eGovernment Programs in the U.S. and EU,
  Washington, DC, March 17, 2003.

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3. Global XML Web Services Architecture (GXA)

• What is the GXA
• An application-level protocol framework built on
  the foundation of XML and SOAP that is designed
  to provide a consistent model for building
  infrastructure-level protocols for Web services
  and applications.
• Defines a family of pluggable infrastructure
  protocols that provide applications with commonly
  needed services such as security, reliability,
  and multi-party agreement.
• To fill the gap in the current Web services
  stack.
• Specifications authored by Microsoft, IBM,
  Verisign, BEA Systems, RSA Security and SAP.
• Growing need for consistent support of more
  secure Web services, especially at the levels of
  inter-enterprise trust, security, and business
  policy agreement.

Note 6 new specifications released in 12/02 and
3 in 2003?
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3. Global XML Web Services Architecture (GXA)
Message Encapsulation
Coordination
Federation
Inspection
Policy
Trust
Routing
GXA
WS-Security
SOAP
SOAP
Transport Layer (HTTP)
Transport (HTTP)
Web Services Stack Where GXA Fits - 7 Main Areas
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3. Global XML Web Services Architecture (GXA)

• WS-Security
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as E-Authentication) as an
  authentication gateway mechanism.
• WS-Policy
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as E-Grants) for defining
  capabilities and requirements as policies.
• WS-Policy Attachment
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as GovBenefits) as mechanism
  for associating policies with the WSDL endpoints
  that identify their services, as well as the WSDL
  messages associated with those endpoints.
• WS-Trust
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as Federal Asset Sales) for
  issuance of security tokens to users based on
  trust requirements.
• WS-Referral
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as E-Travel) for load
  balancing.
• WS-Transaction
• May have applicability to E-Government
  initiatives (such as Pay.gov) for transactional
  processing.

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4. Tree of Knowledge Technologies
Content Management Languages
Semantic Technology Languages
Process Knowledge Languages
Software Modeling Languages
AI Knowledge Representation
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5. Pilot Projects
Envisioning has always been a necessary and
difficult job

• Users never know what they want
• until they see what they get

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5. Pilot Projects

• 1. Digital Talking Books on CD-ROM and the Web as
  VoiceXML.
• 2. XML Collaborator.
• 3. VoiceXML for Universal Access and Homeland
  Security Applications.
• 4. Geospatial Interoperability.
• 5. XML Web Services Content Authoring.
• 6. Military Systems.
• 7. E-Forms for e-Gov The Use of XML
  Standards-based Applications.
• 8. The MetaMatrix System for Model-driven
  Integration with Enterprise Metadata.
• 9. Cognitive Topic Map Web Sites-Aggregating
  Information Across Individual Agencies and E-Gov
  Initiatives.
• 10. Collaboration and CoSourcing Designing
  Intergovernmental Services and Sharable
  Components.
• 11. The Potential of Semantic Technologies for
  E-Gov.
• 12. XML Data Exchange Across Multiple Levels of
  Government Using Native XML Databases.

Note As of March 24, 2003.
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5. Pilot Projects
How the pilots map to the Knowledge Architecture?
FEA Capabilities Advisor

• Intelligent search
• Capabilities search
• Composable Applications
• Dynamic web services discovery

Knowledge Enablement
MOF Integrator
Topic Maps
XML Collaborator
E-Forms
Information Integration
Agencies Content Managers
Agencies Databases and Systems
Information and Data Sources
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5. Pilot ProjectsArchitecting the E-Grants
Single System Solution (1/29/03)
XForms Web Browser Interface
Applicant 3
Applicant 2
Applicant 1
..
Applicant N
Valid XML
XML Collaborator Design Collaboration And
Registration Support
E-Grants Trusted Broker
XML Repository Web Services
Valid XML
XML Repository Web Services
Agency N
Agency 1
Agency 2
Agency 3
..
Trusted Broker Embodies Standards, Benefits
Applicants and Agencies Facilitates
System-to-System Interfaces Builds applicant
knowledge of "core" data Helps identify
commonalities among agency-specific data
Annotations by WG Chair
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5. Pilot Projects
Example of Components Eforms

• Components Subcommittee Process
• Target Agency Pilot.
• Provide Incentive.
• Create Sharable Item.
• Involve Industry.

• XML Web Services WG Eforms for E-Gov Pilot
• Censuss GIDS.
• Cost Savings.
• Open Source.
• Vendor Support for Open Standards (XSD, XForms,
  XHTML, SVG, etc.).

An Enterprise Architecture Component is a
self-contained business process or service with
predetermined functionality that may be exposed
through a business or technology interface.
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5. Pilot Projects
Example of Components Eforms

• Components Subcommittee Process
• Identification
• Classification
• Standardization
• Publication
• Utilization

• XML Web Services WG Eforms for E-Gov Pilot
• eGrants SF424
• eGrants(BRM XNS)
• XML Schema
• XML Collaborator
• XML Web Service

An Enterprise Architecture Component is a
self-contained business process or service with
predetermined functionality that may be exposed
through a business or technology interface.
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5. Pilot Projects
Example of Components Federation (loosely
coupled)

• Granularity
• Components
• Metadata Models
• Registries

• Examples
• Eforms (e.g. eGrants)
• Data Elements and XML Schema (e.g. DOD ISO 11179
  Registries)
• ebXML (e.g. GSA-NIST XML Registry)

E.g. Subcomponent of XML Schema to E-Gov Portal
(e.g. Geospatial One-Stop) to Complete Line of
Business (e.g. Data and Statistics Development,
Health Informatics, etc.).
E.g. The XML Collaborator Pilot is federating
components, metadata models, and registries by
supporting XML, ebXML, and UDDI standards.
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5. Pilot Projects
(6) Map virtual XML Document to physical sources
using Schema in MOF repository
Design-Time Integration of Data Via Web Services
Architecture The Rap Sheet Example
(3) Import modeled XML elements and types into
XML Registry
(2) Identify and model XML schema types
(4) Define XML Schema using registered elements
from MetaBase
XML Collaborator Registry
MetaBase MOF Repository
(5) Import XML Schema info MOF repository
(1) Import Physical Source Metadata
(8) Register WSDL in UDDI Registry
Web Service
(7) Create and Deploy Web Services for accessing
integrated data
Disparate Data Sources
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6. Contact Information

• EPA
• Computer Scientist and XML and Web Services
  Specialist
• Office of Environmental Information (MC 2822T)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• 202-566-1657
• niemann.brand_at_epa.gov
• http//www.sdi.gov
• Chair, CIO Councils XML Web Services Working
  Group
• bniemann_at_cox.net
• http//listserv.gsa.gov/archives/cioc-web-services
  .html
• http//web-services.gov