Web Services Patterns:Question

[Srinivasan Mani]

Whether the book covers basics of Web Services or just patterns alone??

[Lasse Koskela]

As is typical to all pattern books, no, it doesn't cover the technology itself.
You can read the table of contents at the APress' site.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Is the book easy for read for newcomers to Webservices?
[ December 02, 2003: Message edited by: Pradeep Bhat ]

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by Pradeep Bhat:
Is the book easy for ready for newcomers to Webservices?

If you don't want to wait for Paul to come and answer that, you can take a look at the sample chapter and judge for yourself.

[Matt R. Hansen]

Here is a link to Amazon. This should commonly contain reviews that are helpful in making your decision.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590590848/qid=1070383596/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-9159879-6666451?v=glance&n=507846

[Pradeep bhatt]

Is the webservices mature enough to write patterns I mean that isnt it too early to write patterns?
[ December 02, 2003: Message edited by: Pradeep Bhat ]

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by Pradeep Bhat:
Is the webservices mature enough to write patterns I mean that isnt it too early to write patterns?

You could say the same about .NET/C#. At least we have a couple of decades worth of experience with similar technologies such as CORBA...

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

IMHO, the book written by Paul is very good... but the title and the description are a bit misleading.
A large part of the book explains how web services work and are architectured. This part (very, very interesting) tries to pinpoint the architectural pattern behind a specific technology of the web services stack. For instance, it explains what is the design pattern behind UDDI or the Architecture Adapter pattern, which is the fundation of web services
Then, some chapters demonstrates how to use webservices for specific needs (with a sample application detailed). I think this is not the most interesting part of the book (no offence, Paul).
Don't see this book is an "equivalent" of EJB Design patterns (Marinescu) or Core J2EE Patterns (Crupi). I think the philosophy here is a bit different.
Nevetheless, Web Services Patternsis VERY good if you want to figure out how web services work behind the hook.
Moreover, the author is not from the J2EE world, but from Jini., and I really believe it is a strength to read a book from a different perspective

btw, this book is supposed to be for Intermediate-Advanced
[ December 02, 2003: Message edited by: Jean-Louis Marechaux ]

[Paul Monday]

Hi, sorry I'm late to the thread!
I think the last post on the thread is very good with respect to what I've tried to achieve. I did try to be very broad...give a solid architectural foundation for Web Services through exposing some core patterns (I think my favorite pattern of the book is actually the architecture adapter) and how Web Services expose these core patterns. I then moved into patterns on top of Web Services (assuming you have enough foundation in Web Services that you want to start building services).
As I mentioned in some of the other posts I put up tonight, I really did try to "elevate" away from the XML discussions, SOAP discussions and dissection of WSDL.
Marechaux's comment on the book not being a "Crupi" equivalent is probably on target. I really find the Core J2EE Patterns book integral FAR beyond J2EE (in fact, you will see many references to Core J2EE Patterns in this book). I really did intend this book (after some early feedback from aPress) to be a more readable "progression" book. Beyond my favorite "architecture adapter" pattern, I really enjoyed writing Chapter 13, "Physical Tiers". What you run into if you're not careful is that you build your service implementations in the same physical tier as the web service container....
Several of the patterns in the book I actually use in my other "non Web Services" service life ;-) I don't know how many times I've run across apps that are "logical" tiers and layers and people don't understand the advantages or mechanics of splitting into physical tiers.
To Pradeep's question about "are Web Services mature enough" for patterns. I actually chatted with the Core J2EE authors about this (one of the advantages of working at Sun ;-) I did try to stay away from emergent patterns. In fact, I tackle Transfer Objects in the book since they are very applicable to Web Services to address performance issues. The core Web Service patterns (SOA, Architecture Adapter, and Directory) are well trodden in the world of computing as are the other patterns I cover. During the writing of the book, I actually tried to forage beyond where this book went and continually beat myself back (specifically, I wanted to forage into orchestration and the areas of BPEL...but then stopped writing them after I found that these technologies were not as well trodden as I had hoped).
To the original question (are you still reading ? It covers the basic architectural and implementation mechanics of Web Service platforms through patterns that Web Services build on (SOA, Architecture Adapter, and Service Directory). It then covers patterns used when you build Web Services.
Does that answer the question?

[j sleeman]

I am doing research in the area of Web Services Patterns and aside from the Web Services Pattern book I haven't found much else out there. Paul do you, or anyone else have any good online references where I might be able to find more work done in this area?
tks -jsleeman