Web Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

JA-SIG – December 8, 2003 – Miami, FL

Jim HelwigProject Manager

University of Wisconsin-MadisonDivision of Information Technology

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Overview

• Super Short Web Services (WS) Primer

• WS at UW-Madison Origins

• WS at UW-Madison Inventory

• Where do we go from here?

• Other examples?

*Disclaimer

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Super Short Web Services Primer

• WS is a collection of standards for Web-based communication facilitating enterprise application interoperability

• WS developed from the bottom up, building on existing technology

• A collection of players play a role in developing WS standards, including W3C, OASIS, IBM, Microsoft and Sun

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The Web Services Stack• XML – eXtensible Markup Language

Implementation independent, object oriented data representation

• XML-RPC – XML Remote Procedure CallSimple data types over TCP/IP

• SOAP – Simple Object Access ProtocolXML over HTTP, data and meta-data, header and body

• WSDL – Web Services Description LanguageWS metadata, describes service, facilitates consumption

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The Web Services Stack (cont.)• UDDI – Universal Description, Discovery and

IntegrationDirectories of WS, white/yellow pages

• Security – authentication, authorization, digital signature, encryption, trust

• Business Process – transactions, quality of service, workflow, coordination

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WS at UW-Madison Origins

• Increasing demand for integration of disparate applications

• Increased awareness of WS

• Increased support of WS in tools

• Bottom up, grassroots

• Many different projects, approaches, no coordination or communication

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WS at UW-Madison Inventory

Server

BizMgmt

Consum

er

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

Future

Pilot or Development

Production

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ATS ↔ ATS• ATS – Academic Technology Solutions• Prod – Activity Creator, client-side Flash and

Java application authoring standards-compliant activities

+ Using XML-RPC to allow improvedaccess to local disk

Java

BizMgmt

Flash

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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UDS (LDAP) ↔ ADI• UDS – University Directory Service• ADI – Application Development and Integration• Dev – General authentication service

+ Abstracts implementation

+ Generic, easily extended

- Working on security issues

VB

BizMgmt

VB

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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UDS (Oracle) ↔ UDS (LDAP)• Prod – Registry Synchronization• Prod – Listener looks for events registered in

Oracle table, notifies other clients, clients retrieve and translate data as necessary (for LDAP, Novell eDirectory, text files)

Oracle

BizMgmt

Perl

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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UDS (LDAP) ↔ WiscMail• WiscMail – Campus-wide email service• Prod – Admin tool for provisioning mail domains

and accounts• Security – Custom Perl mod for authN/authZ

using app name, IP, certs

+ Abstraction of a very messy combo ofLDAP schema and flat files

Perl

BizMgmt

PHP/Perl

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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UDS (LDAP) ↔ WiscCal• WiscCal – Campus-wide calendaring service• Dev – Admin tool for provisioning accounts

+ WSDL may help w/ tool integration, explicit enumeration of data types

Perl

BizMgmt

AS

P3

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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ISIS ↔ Learn@UW• ISIS – Student information system using PeopleSoft 8

Student Administration• Learn@UW – Course management system using

Desire2Learn• Prod – Exchange of course registration

info using batch generated XML files• Future – PS8 XML w/ HTTP post to

D2L listener• Future – Documentation service uniting

info from D2L Web site, D2L app, UWauthored materials presented via WS

PeopleSoft

BizMgmt

VB

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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APBS ↔ ISIS• APBS – Appointment, payroll and benefit system

implement with Lawson• Dev – A manual process creates a data extract that

is converted to XML used to load a database table that is in turn uploaded into PeopleSoft

• Future – Replace with a more standards-based approach

- Lack of vendor support Law

son

BizMgmt

PeopleSoft

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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? ↔ My UW-Madison• My UW-Madison – Campus-wide portal• Prod – Various semi-static XML/XSLT feeds are

retrieved via HTTP and incorporated into the portal

• Future – SOAP, WS, WSRP• WSRP – Web Services for Remote

Portals

+ Planned support by portal vendors

?

BizMgmt

Java

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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Shibboleth ↔ ?• Pilot - Pilot making library electronic journal

reports available to multi-institutional audience• Dev – Stable development environment• Future – Internet2 blog

PHP

BizMgmt

?

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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PASE ↔ ?• Populations, Affiliations, Services and

Entitlements• Proposed campus-wide, standard authorization

service• Future – WS interface

LD

AP

BizMgmt

?

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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PHIN ↔ PHIN• PHIN – Public Health Information Network• Prod – Data exchange, ex. Clinics → Researchers, State

Lab of Hygiene → Hospitals• Prod – Lightweight Java/Tomcat process accessing

proprietary DB, “flawless” for 1 ½ years• Security – 2-way certificate exchange• Future – Directory of shared data pools

serving diverse groups and applications+ SOAP provides detailed error messages Java

BizMgmt

Java

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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FP&M ↔ FP&M• FP&M – Facilities Planning and Management• Prod – Fleet Reservations• Prod – Abstraction of data access and biz logic• Security – IP restriction• ex. makeRez(info) → rez# or failure info• Future – Easier integration w/ portal+ Flexibility of consumers+ Centralized DB access (drivers issues)+ Organized, “Data with meaning”+ Allows transparent relocation

.net

BizMgmt

.net

Security

UDDI

WSDL

SOAP

XML

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Where do we go from here?• WS Special Interest Group

Loose group of developers, currently DoIT but planning on opening up to all of campus

• Access to Data ProjectCross-campus group trying to facilitate data exchange between enterprise applications, considering WS

• UW-System Common Systems Interoperability Architecture Working GroupRecommend and support best practices, architectures and tools that support interoperability between information systems across the UW system, considering recommending service oriented architecture, considering WS

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Summary• WS started bottom up• WS use at UW-Madison started bottom up• Numerous projects by multiple groups

using various pieces of WS stack in various states of planning/development/deployment

• Communication and coordination is increasing

• WS use is gaining momentum

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Questions?

Other examples of WS use?

Jim Helwig: jim.helwig@doit.wisc.edu

DoIT Web site: http://www.doit.wisc.edu

My UW-Madison: http://my.wisc.edu