An analysis of the driving forces for Web services adoption

Web services are supported by major IT vendors and have been adopted by some enterprises in various applications. However, due to the hype surrounding Web services, information technology (IT) personnel and business managers often have difficulty assessing the potential uses, impacts, and benefits of Web services. Based on literature review and technical information, as well as field and Web-based case studies, we have developed a framework for analyzing the driving forces for Web services adoption. The framework and detailed benefits analysis model can be used by IT and business strategy planners to identify technical options and business opportunities, as well as to formulate Web services implementation strategies.     

Automatic derivation of BPEL4WS from IDEF0 process models

Integration definition for function modelling (IDEF0) is one of the most popular notations for modelling business processes. It employs a rather simple and intuitive modelling construct, consisting of boxes representing functions and arrows connecting them signifying flow of information and materials. Web services on the other hand are an emerging technology for implementing distributed systems. Web service orchestration languages, such as Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS), are the emerging approach for describing processes as networks of coordinated web services. Business processes as captured in IDEF0 models, however, may contain both web services as well as other types of activities which need to be coordinated. By automatically analysing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) definition of an IDEF0 model, we can identify how web services interact with other activities and at runtime generate code to support the orchestration of web services with the overall business process. The approach proposed is independent of the orchestration language and ensures an implementation independent model for specifying web service orchestrations. This approach also enables the top-down analysis of a business process to its constituent web services and avoids any misalignment problems during design time between the two.     

A business model for deploying Web services:A data-centric approach based on factual dependencies

The standards XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI allow (i) services to be accessed and executed via the Web; and (ii) a loose coupling of these services. Thanks to these standards, Web services technology is becoming not only a de facto integration standard, but also a de facto Internet standard instance of the SOA architecture. However, the deployment of such a technology is still hindered by some technical as well as methodological issues. This paper proposes a business model with multiple interfaced abstraction levels as a framework to methodologically deploy Web services technology with respect to SOA architecture. The attributes describing the business objects and coordination artifacts as described in the highest abstraction level of the business model, i.e. the universe of discourse, are aggregated according to a time/space constraint called factual dependency. Each aggregation of factually dependent attributes is validated with regard to an actual business event. The aggregation is then interfaced to lead to a well-specified Web service. The resulting comprehensive set of consistent Web services are then registered in a public or a private UDDI to be discovered and invoked by any business process. The proposed Web services generation process aims at unlocking and turning informational assets into actions. It differs from the current IT perspective approaches that generate Web services directly from redundant and inconsistent elements in the enterprise information systems.     

Research on dynamic business composition based on web service proxies

Web services-based business composition brings a number of advantages to the enterprise application development. How to select and compose the web services based on their functionality and QoS (Quality of Service) dynamically prove to be more and more important. In this paper we develop a proxy-based framework to compose Web services dynamically. The framework is featured with a QoS model, an effective service discovery and selection algorithms to facilitate the dynamic integration of Web services and management of abnormalities. Furthermore, a business process constructing method based on service slice is put forward to satisfy the users’ personalized requirements more effectively and flexibly. Our study concerns both functionality and QoS characteristics of Web services to identify the optimal business process solutions. A Complete case study is also included in this paper and the performance demonstrated that the framework and algorithms can provide a tangible and reliable solution to dynamic Web service composition and adaptation.     

基于Web Services架构的制造业信息化模型研究

针对目前制造业信息化系统存在的不足，提出一种基于Web Services架构的制造业信息化模型建立方法，即对Web Services架构及其支撑技术、工作模式进行详细的研究后。按照产品生命周期建立制造业信息化模型，给出模型组成结构和功能设计，论述了模型实现的模式，从而实现制造业电子化的B2B(business to business)和B2C(business to customer)业务．     

基于时间Petri网的Web服务建模技术研究

Web服务是微软和IBM公司为能够解决当前的信息的整合而提出的,是一种部署在Web上、面向Intemet的、基于XML的对象/组件技术;其目标是能够自动和统一地封装服务信息、服务行为、数据表示以及商务流程.商务流程的建立对于Web服务是至关重要的,因为Web服务之间的信息协调是以商务流程为基础的.因此IBM为解决该问题,提出了Web服务流程语言（web services flow language,WSFL）.但是IBM提出的WSFL没有能够从并发协调的角度来阐述商务流程的建模方法,所以提出利用Petri网为模型描述工具,用于描述与分析商务流程模型,同时给出Petri网与WSFL之间的转换算法,并以实例证明了该模型用于商务流程的建模方法是切实可行的.     

基于颜色Petri网的服务组合建模与验证

Web服务组合技术能快速、灵活的满足复杂多变的业务需求,Web服务组合及其形式化描述和验证已经成为Web服务中一个非常重要的研究方向.给出了一个基于颜色Petri网(CPN)的Web服务和Web服务组合的形式化定义和描述,主要描述了4种组合结构:顺序、选择、并发和循环.给出了一个颜色Petri网建模Web服务组合的实例,并且对模型进行了简单的正确性分析.分析结果表明,该建模方法满足正确性要求.     

一种Web服务模型的动态行为转换方法研究实现

随着业务流程的复杂性与日俱增,编排和协调Web服务的价值也日益被人们所认识。近年来,国内外一些研究机构和IT企业在关于模型驱动架构MDA在Web服务中的应用方面作了不同程度的研究,但仅仅集中于Web服务模型的静态结构转换。根据MDA的思想,在Web服务模型的转换中,使用动态行为的平台无关模型PIM来定义业务流程,并提供将PIM转换成平台相关模型PSM的方法。研究Web服务模型的动态行为转换,讲述用UML活动图定义业务流程,并提供一种如何从UML活动图转换成BPEL的方法。     

Web services and flexible business processes: towards the adaptive enterprise

The full potential of the expected role of Information Technology (IT) in facilitating organizational adaptation has not yet been realized because most of the existing systems do not lend themselves to the levels of flexibility required to support changes in business processes. This problem is accentuated with increase of inter-organizational linkages involving disparate IT systems. Web services have emerged as a disruptive technology, with a real potential of enabling flexible business processes. This paper examines the influence of Web services on business process flexibility and analyses its impact on organizational adaptation.     

Enterprise web services-enabled translation framework

Managing multilingual documents is a time consuming, error prone and expensive task, particularly when dealing with dynamic documents such as web contents. A broad spectrum of organizations such as corporations, NGO’s and Governments are committed to offer such documents in a number of languages where the content is further localized to suit specific cultural settings. In this paper, we propose a business model supported by a web services-enabled framework, which facilitate all aspects related to multilingual web contents management, from negotiating translation-request quotations through production of final localized output as well as its verification, and delivery. This service is based on a collaborative internet-based translation framework, referred to in this paper as Translation Management System (TMS). Our approach uses XLIFF, a Web service standard developed by OASIS, in order to interoperate enterprise translation services and related Web applications. We present and implement a translation business model centered around standardized processes, which we validate through a case study in the context of a Web translation project. We also propose a QoS monitoring model to satisfy the quality-related requirements of a translation job. Finally, we evaluate the usability of our streamlined Web translation services through users’ perception in terms of flexibility, ease of use, and quality of translation. The results revealed interesting performance tradeoffs relative to translation workflows and content-translation accuracy as well as flexibility, and diversity of TMS provided services.     

基于WS-BPEL 的Web 服务组合技术

随着Web服务技术的不断发展,越来越多的Web服务已经发布在互联网上。然而独立的Web服务功能通常有限,不能满足用户或企业实际应用的需求。因此,Web服务的组合显得越来越重要。介绍了Web服务组合和WS-BPEL的相关知识,使用最新的业务流程执行语言WS-BPEL描述业务流程,在J2EE集成开发环境下设计并实现了基于业务流程思想的贷款审批应用实例,在Web服务执行引擎Active BPEL上进行部署,对Web服务进行了有效的组合。     

A formal and visual modeling approach to choreography based web services composition and conformance verification

Web services have emerged as the building blocks of a service-oriented architecture that supports not only enterprise application integration (EAI) and business process management (BPM) within an organization but also B2B collaboration based on business process integration. The web services choreography approach to B2B process integration allows business partners to orchestrate their own web services privately, while conforming with an agreed specification of the common ordering conditions and constraints under which messages are exchanged among partners’ web services. In this approach, choreography conformance is an essential requirement for the successful implementation of collaborative processes. A formal approach to web services composition and conformance verification based on WS-CDL and WS-BPEL is presented. This approach involves model checking as an automated means of verifying choreography conformance. The main contributions include a precise notion of choreography conformance on which verification is based as well as support for the complementary use of visual modeling (e.g. UML) and standard WS-¹ notations in composition.     

基于Web服务的Agent模型研究

提出了一个基于Web服务的Agent模型,来增强web服务的智能性。首先该模型使用服务Agent管理某一领域功能类似的一组Web服务,它使用服务模板来抽象一组功能类似的服务集的特征,并使用规划来表示使用服务模板来完成某一业务目标的过程,这种抽象屏蔽了分布的具体Web服务的异构性,从而使得用户只需要关注于他们所需要完成的目标,而不需要关注如何完成他们的目标。在此基础上提出了一个以规划和服务为中心的BSP（belief,services,plan）Agent概念模型。面向服务的Agent模型弥补了现有Web服务技术的不足,为快速有效的Web服务集成奠定了基础,同时BSP模型也为面向服务的Agent系统的开发提供了理论指导。     

On the verification of security-aware E-services

Web services providing E-commerce capabilities to support business transactions over the Internet are more and more widespread. The development of such services involves several security issues ranging from authentication to the management of the access to shared resources according to a given business model. The capability of validating designs against fast evolving requirements is of paramount importance for the adaptation of business models to changing regulations and rapidly evolving market needs. So, techniques for the specification and automated analysis of web services to be used in security-sensitive applications are crucial in the development of these systems.     

Web Service Diagnoser Model for managing faults in web services

Reliability is an important criterion to facilitate extensive deployment of web service technology for commercial business applications. Run-time monitoring and fault management of web services are essential to ensure uninterrupted and continuous availability of web services. This paper presents WISDOM (Web Service Diagnoser Model) a generic architecture for detecting faults during execution of web services. Policies have been proposed to describe the intended behavior of web services and faulty behavior would be detected as deviations or inconsistencies with respect to the specified behavior. The model proposes the use of monitoring components in service registries and service providers to detect run-time faults during publishing, discovery, binding and execution of web services. An independent fault diagnoser is proposed to coordinate the individual monitoring components and also act as a repository for the specified web service policies. The proposed model has been tested with a sample web service application and the results obtained are presented.     

Log-based mining techniques applied to Web service composition reengineering

Web service compositions are becoming more and more complex, involving numerous interacting ad-hoc services. These services are often implemented as business processes themselves. By analysing such complex web service compositions one is able to better understand, control and eventually re-design them. Our contribution to this problem is a mining algorithm, based on a statistical technique to discover composite web service patterns from execution logs. Our approach is characterised by a “local” pattern’s discovery that covers partial results through a dynamic programming algorithm. Those locally discovered patterns are then composed iteratively until the composite Web service is discovered. The analysis of the disparities between the discovered model and the initial ad-hoc composite model (delta-analysis) enables initial design gaps to be detected and thus to re-engineer the initial Web service composition.     

基于语义描述的Web服务工作流动态组合研究

传统静态工作流很难适应动态的、灵活的现代业务流程。近年来Web服务技术不断发展,使得工作流中的活动以Web服务形式的实现,而且工作流本身也可以以Web服务的形式被调用,特别是语义Web技术的发展,为计算机实现自动Web服务工作流提供了可能。本文基于本体论提出了一个半结构化工作流本体模型,并在此基础上设计了基于Agent技术的Web服务工作流系统。     

Eine Dienstgüte unterstützende Webservice-Architektur für flexible Geschäftsprozesse

Web services as a technology to enable distributed business processes gain in importance. However, the support of Quality of Service (QoS) is crucial in this context. Thus, we present an integrated web service architecture with comprehensive QoS support. The architecture we introduce in this paper supports the assessment of web services to assure that only web services will be used in critical business processes that satisfy the requirements defined by the user. The selection and execution of a certain web service depends on its QoS-properties that must be guaranteed in Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The compliance with SLAs is monitored by the system as well. Furthermore we introduce a prototypical implementation of our web service architecture.