Service Integration

Abstract

Service integration tries to tackle the problem to deploy new services using ex- isting legacy components in a network centric environment. Network centric was considered here the Internet with the set of protocols supporting the World Wide Web. Usually the legacy components were developed with the assumption of a more closed non-distributed world. Especially they were originally not planned fo use in the web. The availability of new enabling technology like object oriented middleware, meta data approaches and their standardization by XML and component con- cepts provide a new base one can use and rethink the problem field of service integration. Basically this problem was already addressed quite often in different more limited fields – e.g. case tools integration, DBMS integration – to mention only a few. Given all this new technology service integration still raises a num- ber of interesting problems while the new technology base allows new and easier solutions than before. First of all one wants to create new services on the web not just only to bring an isolated (legacy) component to the web. Thus it is necessary to describe services and provide means to combine existing services to form new ones. Then there is the set of problems, which are created by the distributed nature of the system created by a particular integrated set of components. This means, services have to be made known and accessible by potential users. This is addressed by mechanisms to register and locate services. Last but not least is the problem to integrate different views on the data and control used by the different services of the (legacy) components.