Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) / Web Services

Today, I am listing a few articles on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services. SOA and Web Services are two buzz words that everyone is talking about these days. October 2005 is SOA/Web Services month at java.sun.com. Check: http://java.sun.com/reference/soawebservices/.

1. Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services: Concepts, Technologies, and Tools: This is an article by Ed Orl. It dates back to April 2005. It discusses about widely-adopted web services technologies that are available to implement a SOA, and more technologies, as well as tools, that are on the way. Check: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/WebServices/soa2/.
   
2. What's New in SOA and Web Services?: This is an article by Ed Orl. It dates back to October 6, 2005. It introduces introduces the enhanced capabilities and emerging technologies, tools, and infrastructure software to simplify creating, using, and managing services in an SOA. Check: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/WebServices/soa2/WhatsNewArticle.html.
   
3. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services: The Road to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): This is an article by Qusay Mahmoud. It dates back to April 2005. After reading this you can find out SOA provides a cost-effective solution to evolving and enhancing legacy enterprise information systems (EIS). Check: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/WebServices/soa/index.html.
   

Here are links to few more links to interviews and chat sessions with different industry gurus:

1. Reap What You SOA: This is an interview of John Crupi and Dan Malks. They are better known for their best seller, Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies. In this interview they talk explain how to build a SOA and why pragmatic SOA really rocks? Check: http://www.sun.com/emrkt/innercircle/newsletter/0905cto.html.
   
2. The Next Big Thing: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Takes a New Route: This is an article by Janice J. Heiss. It dates back to October 6, 2005, It is an interview of RouteOne's T. N. Subramaniam and Sun's Ashok Mollin. In this they discuss about RouteOne's SOA, which serves some 80% of the 22,000 auto dealerships in the United States. Check: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/routeone_qa.html.
   
3. Sun Java Studio Enterprise: Web Services Strategies: This is an article on Moderated Chat with Sun's Chief Web Services Strategist. The guest is Mark Hapner who is Sun Distinguished Engineer and chief web services strategist at Sun Microsystems and the moderator is Jeanne Hsu who is Enterprise Audience Manager at Sun Microsystems. It dates back to September 23, 2004. In this Mark Hapner answers a wide variety of questions about web services. Check: http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javatools/jsenterprise/community/chats/september232004.html.
   

Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo)

Today I am posting links to a few nice articles on Windows Communication Foundation (WCF - formerly known as Indigo). WCF is Microsoft's unified programming model for building service-oriented applications. Homepage of WCF can be accessed at http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/indigo/.

1. The first to go in the list is the article Introducing Indigo: An Early Look by David Chappell. It appeared in February 2005 and is based on a prerelease version of Indigo's first Community Technology Preview (CTP). It provides an architectural overview of Indigo covering Indigo's relationship to existing distributed application technologies in the .NET Framework, the basics of creating and consuming Indigo services, and an overview of Indigo's capabilities, including security, reliable messaging, and transaction support. Please find the complete article at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/introindigov1-0.asp.
   
2. Next on the list is an article titled Introduction to Building Windows Communication Foundation Services by Clemens Vasters. It appeared in September 2005 and is based on Indigo Beta1. It explains the fundamental concepts of WCF and shows how to build services and service clients using WCF's System.ServiceModel namespace. Please find the complete article at http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/introtowcf.asp.
   
3. Next on the list is The Windows Communication Foundation: A Primer by Laurence Moroney. It appeared in first week of October 2005 and September Community Technical Preview versions of WCF. It helps in creating first Indigo application. Please find the complete article at http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/29414?trk=DXRSS_WEBDEV.
   
4. Last but not the least, on the list is Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo) FAQ. Here you may find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions concerning the WCF. Please find the complete faq at http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/support/faq/communication/.

Software (Browster, TortoiseCVS)

Today I list two freeware tools that are really nice to use and speed up the way you work. Check them!

A nice tool for people who do a lot of searching over Google, MSN, etc. Check www.browster.com.

Another tool for those using CVS. This lets you access your CVS directly from Windows Explorer. Check www.tortoisecvs.org.

Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation

A nice article on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation by David Chappell is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/WWFIntro.asp.

It describes the functionality and benefits of Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation, soon to be a standard part of the Microsoft Windows platform. Windows Workflow Foundation provides a general framework for defining workflow, one that can be used in many different kinds of applications.