Web services has promised many things. One primary promise has been the
ability to piece applications together by snapping Web services together like
so many Lego blocks. The output of one service becomes the input to the next
and so on.
In 2001, IBM published a specification called WSFL 1.0: Web Services Flow
Language. WSFL is a language used to define business processes using Web
services. By implementing WSFL, you can create process definitions that can
be used by any WSFL-based business process engine. In addition, any process
defined in WSFL can, itself, become a Web service, allowing composition of
more and more complex and coarse-grained processes.
My company worked directly with IBM to interpret and implement their
specification; this article describes WSFL at a high level and concludes with
some thoughts on WSFL and its future.
Why Business Process Modelin... (more)
Special Java Session!
This is a crucial time for Java and J2EE. Competing market and technical
interests are moving Java in different directions. IT organizations are
clamoring for ease of development, faster standards adoption, and stability.
The application server market continues to consolidate enough so that there
may be only three major application server vendors in the near future. (Or
will it be only 2?!!!) The industry is also torn between 100% standards
adoption and the productivity of proprietary frameworks. Some people claim
that middleware is dead-yea right! Come join... (more)
To put it bluntly, SilverStream 2.0 sets a new standard for large-scale Web
development and deployment. We first looked at the product in June 1997 when
they were the newest entrant in the application server market. It lacked many
enterprise features such as scalability, fault tolerance and CORBA support.
In addition, it only offered advantages in the area of Java client
development and deployment. With 2.0, things are quite a bit different.
SilverStream 2.0, released in October 1998, not only fulfills the early
promise of the 1.0 product but includes innovative approaches for writ... (more)
So, people keep asking me, "Steve, how come you are such a wild and crazy
guy?"
OK, sorry, a late 70s flashback there.
No, they ask me, "Steve, what's your take on Web Services?" To that, I have a
standard opening: There is nothing special about Web Services. Web Services
will change the world. The reason I use this opening set of remarks is
because before I did, I'd get one of the following reactions when getting
into a conversation about Web Services: Web Services? No thanks, I already
have enough contractors. Web Services is revolutionary. Are you ready to
unleash a force of... (more)
I have a love/hate relationship with J2EE. I love the idea of standards that
we can all use in our development to improve interoperability, ease
integration issues, create a pool of skilled developers, etc. I hate the idea
that I have to wait years for the standards to evolve and become usable. And
I hate having specs that seem to work well in theory but have no practical
implementation behind them. This brings me to the JSF specification.
How long have we heard about JSF (JavaServer Faces) and how it will make it
easier to build Web pages? Why did it take more than two and a half... (more)