A service-oriented architecture is essentially a collection of services. These services communicate with each other. The communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting services to each other is needed.
Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use
DCOM or Object Request Brokers (ORBs) based on the CORBA specification. For more
on DCOM and CORBA, see Prior
service-oriented architectures (new window).
Services
If a service-oriented architecture is to be effective, we need a clear understanding of the term service. A service is a function that is well-defined, self-contained, and does not depend on the context or state of other services.
See Service (new window).
Connections
The technology of Web services (new window)
is the most likely connection technology of service-oriented architectures. Web
services essentially use XML
(new window) to create a robust connection.
The following figure illustrates a basic service-oriented architecture. It shows a service consumer at the right sending a service request message to a service provider at the left. The service provider returns a response message to the service consumer. The request and subsequent response connections are defined in some way that is understandable to both the service consumer and service provider. How those connections are defined
is explained in Web Services explained
(new window). A service provider can also be a service consumer.
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Service-Oriented Modeling (SOA): Service Analysis, Design, and Architecture by Michael Bell Average Customer Review: based on 17 reviews. Customer Review: This is a comprehensive modeling book that delves into modeling aspects of services. The discussed topics address fundamental software development and architecture issues that are not unique to the SOA paradigm. The illustrated methodology tackles imperative software design practices as well. Bell's modeling book also introduces a m...
Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) by Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Carol Baroudi, Marcia Kaufman Average Customer Review: based on 12 reviews. Customer Review: I have always been seriously put off by the "Dummies" series. I would like to buy books that assume some intelligence on the part of the reader. I don't like being talked down to. But this book doesn't do that. Instead it explains concepts clearly, and has been a great help to me in understanding the clouds of jargon that surround t...
Enterprise SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture Best Practices (The Coad Series) by Dirk Krafzig, Karl Banke, Dirk Slama Average Customer Review: based on 18 reviews. Customer Review: Frankly, I thought SOA was just a bunch of marketing hype until I read this book. The authors begin by clearly explaining of the kinds of problems SOA is trying to solve, and how other architectures tried and failed (or partially succeeded) to solve these problems. In fact, you don't get a definition of SOA until chapter 4, which is...