Linux - Index of

FIGURE 3
WEB SERVICES
WEB SERVICES PLATFORM
Tool Product Site Linux Version
Web Services BEA WorkShop www.bea.com Red Hat 7.2
Platform Apache Axis www.apache.org/axis Any Linux distribution
Monitoring Apache Axis tcpMon http://ws.apache.org/axis Any Linux distribution
Testing PushToTest TestMaker www.pushtotest.com Any Linux distribution
Altova XMLSPY 5.0 www.xmlspy.com Red Hat 8.0 using Wine 20030115
Managing HP OpenView www.openview.hp.com Linux agents for Red Hat 7.2,
SuSE 8.0, Debian
TABLE 1
SOAP
Client
WEB SERVICES DEVELOPMENT WITH LINUX
provides the tcpmon utility class that listens
for connections on a given port on the
local host and forwards incoming messages
to another port on another server. By
inserting itself between the two ports, tcpmon
shows you all incoming and outgoing
SOAP messages. Similarly, WebLogic
Workshop provides you with a view of the
SOAP messages. The two approaches differ
in that the Apache Axis utility makes you
configure tcpmon, while WebLogic
Workshop embeds this capability within its
user interface.
Testing the Service
When testing a Web service, you must
have well-designed tests – especially if the
service will be distributed and leveraged
by other divisions, customers, suppliers,
and partners. And testing a Web service
presents a particular challenge because it
lacks a user interface. Unlike Web-based
applications that contain a presentation
layer, Web services typically expose an
XML request/response interface.
Fortunately, you can choose from among
several automated testing tools to help
simplify your Web services testing process
on Linux.
Runtime
Environment
SOAP
Server
Web
Service
Web
Service
A couple of the tools that we evaluated
and recommend include:
• PushToTest TestMaker: Allows you to
test the functionality, scalability, and
performance of a Web service. You can
test the functionality of a Web service by
developing JPython scripts in a graphical
environment. For example, you can
determine that the right SOAP message
is being sent to the Web service.
TestMaker also comes with the Test
Object Oriented Library (TOOL), a
library developed by PushToTest to simplify
the creation of Web services tests.
TOOL provides protocol handlers, data
source handlers, and utility objects to
handle communication with a Web service
by using HTTP, HTTPS, SOAP, or
XML-RPC.
• Altova XMLSPY 5: Offers functionality
such as support for advanced SOAP,
WSDL, and Web services testing and
debugging. The XMLSPY 5 SOAP
Debugger acts as a Web services proxy
between a Web services client and server.
It lets you inspect WSDL files, singlestep
through Web services transactions,
inspect every request and response
XML document, and set breakpoints on
SOAP functions either on the request or
the response. You can also define conditional
breakpoints that trigger if a certain
request or response contains
selected data that is specified via an
XPath query.
Managing the Service
In order to get the most out of Web
services, you must be able to actively manage
and control the new capabilities that
come along with them. HP OpenView
offers application management for most
software running today. The new Web
Services Management Engine (WSME) is
already available for capturing Web services
transactions, actively managing Web
services over WSDL/SOAP, and enabling
provisioning, user profile registration, realtime
SLA enforcement, access control,
subscription management and metering
for prepaid billing. WSME can be deployed
either as an endpoint on a Web service
platform, or as a control point in front of a
farm of Web service platforms. WSME can
also natively manage J2EE or .NET Web
services deployed behind or beyond the
firewall.
Looking forward, new manageability
needs will continue to grow, as will the
need for different operating environments
such as Linux, hp-ux, and Windows to
coexist in the same Internet infrastructure.
As a result, organizations will
demand tools that provide increasingly
tight, integrated management for these
components in order to achieve optimum
costs and increase service levels at the
same time.
See Table 1 for a list of the tools available
for Web services development along with
the versions of Linux that each supports.
Conclusion
Web services offer solutions to deal
with the changes, flexibility needs, and
firewall issues that your organization faces.
Building your Web services on Linux
makes sense; now you have an overview of
a wide variety of tools to help develop,
monitor, and test your Web services. Put
the best practices outlined in this paper to
use and see how Web services can help
your organization design sound integration
tasks and transform its business
processes.
LINUXWORLD MAGAZINE WWW.LINUXWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003 24 www.LinuxWorld.com