Access Web Services as Database:

Abhishek Khanolkar

• Is it possible to connect the disparate environments like the web services and the web applications?

• In other words is it possible to consume data propagated by the web services based in the database?

• In disparate environments web services make crossing the environment barriers easier because web services communicate using XML and XML is platform independent language.

• If you use Web Sphere Information Integrator it is possible to access data propagated by the web service.

• ‘The State of New Jersey Saved an estimated $500,000 in IT development costs and expects to save as much as $8 million dollars overall by automating the information integration of data from four disparate systems into agency specific data marts ’.

• In this paper I am using DB2 as a database, IBM’s Rational Application Developer as an Application development package and Web Sphere Information Integrator as a middleware.

• The first step in the process (Tutorials) is to check if the web service is working. www.xmethods.com is a web site which lists many web services.

• Once you are on the site you click full services link and that gives the list of all the available web services.

• Application development is done using WSAD or RAD. The database at the back is DB2 which had the web service and has been tested to work.

• The tutorial explains this step by step process to do the job.

DB2• DB2 is IBM’s Relational Database management

System. IBM now calls it data server. • DB2 Universal Database is a free version of

database made available by IBM. Oracle and Microsoft has also made available their database as free versions.

• The good thing about DB2 is that it lets users download only those features essential to the user, thus avoiding huge and hefty downloads.

• IBM’s RAD is originally WSAD (WebSphere Application Developer). RAD is and Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for designing, constructing Web services, and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications. J2EE includes technologies such as Servlets and JSP .

• Oracle has Web Service Manager to mange Web Service and defines the policies of Web Services. This product does not allow accessing web service as database.

• Microsoft’s SQL server does not have the same kind of features as RAD and DB2

• WSAD makes the job easier by its ready to use tools and the combination of the three is awesome.

• In the study I got to use RAD, WSII and DB2, it was enriching experience .