Before we begin discussion on SOA Components, Let's understand ground level concept in SOA.
SOA Is an architectural style which helps in building connected enterprise applications to provide solutions to business problems.By following SOA - Enterprise applications modules can be exposed as web services which helps in easy integration and helps in reuse.There are lot more definitions comes up from google! Give a try.
From architectural style - Loose coupling, interoperability.From customer's perspective it's about more or less of integration of different legacy systems which helps IT to deliver, in greater flexibility and speed with Changing Markets,increasing competitive pressures, and evolving customer needs.
Here in SOA - Services play very important role and key factors in listing SOA Components ;).
- Oracle Service Bus
- Oracle BPEL Process Manager
- Oracle Jdeveloper
- Oracle Enterprise Manager
- Some more...(Will be covered in next post)
SOA services have self-describing interfaces in platform-independent XML documents. Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is the standard used to describe the services.Services communicate with messages formally defined via XML Schema (also called XSD). Means, Playaround with data.
Communication among consumers and providers or services typically happens in heterogeneous environments, with little or no knowledge about the provider. Services exchange information through messages.Messages require Transformation when communication happens from one XML to another due to use of different messages in different services. i.e Produces output document as an XML document.
Since messages can be received through any protocol such as HTTP(s), JMS, File , and has to be send messages through same or different protocol proper Routing for messages is required.
That's the reason - Oracle Service Bus - Does message transformation, routing..etc.
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Prior to Service Bus, you require an automated system which develops SOA Services/Composites.
Integrated development Environments should provide a capability of building service oriented appliactions using latest industry standards like Java, XML, Web Services.It should support complete end to end development life cycle including coding, debugging, testing and deploying applications.
Here Comes - Oracle Jdeveloper - It's Integrated Development Environment that simplifies the development of Java-based SOA applications and user interfaces with support for the full development life cycle.
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There is still more of it. Orchestrations of services are required as and when there is a requirement to combine existing services into new services.Solution should be provided where assembling a set of discrete services into an end-to-end process can be done.Radically, which helps in reducing the cost and complexity of process integration initiatives.
There's a solution - Oracle BPEL Process Manager - provides a comprehensive, standards-based and easy to use solution for assembling a set of discrete services into an end-to-end process flow, radically reducing the cost and complexity of process integration.
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There's still lot more into SOA.How about management and monitoring of SOA?
Once SOA composite is being developed there should be a way to configure, monitor and manage during runtime.There should be a tool or application or solution which helps administrators in providing unparalleled visibility into execution of processes showing complete end to end representation in graphical diagram.
How about Web browser-based, graphical user interface ? - Oracle Enterprise Manager - Management and monitoring of Oracle SOA Suite is done through Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.
There are some more components which makes Successful SOA! like Service Security, Service Repository, Service Policies which will be covered in next post.Stay tuned.