Product Description

Composing Service-Oriented Architecture Solutions with PHP and Open-Source ActiveBPEL

• Build Web Services with PHP
• Combine PHP Web Services into orchestrations with WS-BPEL
• Use better WS-BPEL to enable parallel processing and asynchronous communication
• Simplify WS-BPEL development with free graphical tool ActiveBPEL Designer

In Detail

When utilized within a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services are part of a business process determining the logical order of service activities – logical units of work performed by one or more services. Today, the most popular tool for organizing service activities into business processes is Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL), a language defining an execution format for business processes operating on Web Services. While it is not a trivial task to define a business process definition with WS-BPEL from scratch, using a graphical WS-BPEL tool can significantly simplify this process.

Examples and practice are much more valuable than theory when it comes to building applications using specific development tools. Unlike many other books on SOA in the market, this book is not focused on architecture. Instead, through numerous examples, it discusses practical aspects of SOA and WS-BPEL development, showing you how to apply architecture in practice with the help of PHP, ActiveBPEL open-source engine, and ActiveBPEL Designer – powerful development tools available for free.

What you will learn from this book?

• Install and configure the software components required to build PHP Web Services and then combine them into WS-BPEL solutions
• Use PHP as the underlying technology for creating building blocks for SOAs
• Build data-centric services based on MySQL or Oracle Database XE
• Secure services built with PHP SOAP extension
• Combine fine-grained services built with PHP into coarse-grained ones with WS-BPEL
• Deploy WS-BPEL process services to ActiveBPEL open-source engine
• Simplify WS-BPEL development with ActiveBPEL Designer
• Implement asynchronous interactions between WS-BPEL processes

Approach

With the help of many examples, the book explains how to build Web Services with PHP, combine them into SOAs with WS-BPEL, and then deploy composite WS-BPEL-based solutions to the ActiveBPEL engine. The examples in this book are presented in a way that anyone can understand and apply.

Who this book is written for?

This book is suitable for anyone who wants to start building SOA applications using powerful tools available free of charge. It also will be useful for PHP developers willing to move towards Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Readers need only a basic knowledge of SOA, BPEL, and Web Services; even a total beginner will be able to follow the examples, provided the required software components are installed on his or her computer. More experienced readers might use this book as a reference, focusing only on the chapters of interest.

SOA and WS-BPEL: Composing Service-Oriented Architecture Solutions with PHP and Open-Source ActiveBPEL