Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services (The Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl)

by Thomas Erl

Book Overview

As XML becomes an increasingly significant part of the IT mainstream, expert guidance and common-sense strategies are required to avoid the many pitfalls of applying XML incorrectly or allowing it to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131428985
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Web Services and SOA explained to great extent

This can be considered the defacto reference for Service oriented infrastructure setup initiatives and approaches. Thomas Erl has made it a masterpiece with lot of positives, negatives and reasons for different choices that can be considered. First couple of chapters dwell into first and generation of web services including BPEL4WS, WS-S, WS-coordination etc. There is also explanations of strategic approaches of XML and database integration. In the middle of the book, there are details about SOA and legacy integration and SOA and enterprise integration. Later parts of the book gets into best practises for integrating XML and integrating web services into the overall enterprise stack. All the SOA entities are shown in vivid details pictorially. This is one of those books written with intent to help the readers with all the possible perspectives(both positive and negative) of the SOA. Great piece of work.

Uniquely useful for architects, engineers and implementers

There are many other books out there about SOA/Web Services that provide a decent overview of the various technical standards, and the vendor products that implement those standards. To use the author's analogy with building a house: these books are like the manuals for the power tools that are used in the construction of the house. While this is certainly useful information, it is not enough. You need to know what you are building and why, how all of the components fit together, and how to go about the project. Erl's book is unique in providing excellent guidance on all of these topics. A trap that many Web services books fall into is just repeating the hype that is put forth by vendors and standards organizations. It is obvious that Erl has a lot of experience personally implementing service-oriented architectures, and he is able to write credibly about what is and what is not true or feasible when it comes to SOA. In addition to containing good advice, the book is logically organized and well written. The clear but informal style gives you the impression of sitting down for a chat with an expert. I highly recommend this field guide for both newcomers to SOA and experienced veterans.

Insightful

Very good reference for designing web services. Takes many low-level considerations into account, relating mostly to XML data formatted documents. What I also liked about this book is being able to read about web services without references to specific programming languages. It gives you a good grasp of concepts that you can take into development with you. This book should appeal to anyone wanting to get a broader perspective of the web services platform. It also has the best descriptions of service oriented integration architectures I've seen. Erl's loose writing style makes some of the more complex subjects easy to get. Thumbs up from me.

This was helpful

We are struggling with webservices/soa migration issues. Two of our systems are causing us a lot of problems. This book helped us with planning and education. It gave us different ideas for approaching migration and integration. This book gave us a migration strategy that is working. Not bad for forty dollars! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how webservices can be positioned to enable integration. The author provides many sample architectures and scenarios. A lot of detailed XML issues are also covered. These are more suitable for developers, because they deal mostly with optimization and modeling techniques. Also useful to us was the step by step process for designing soa friendly components. I've never seen this anywhere else, and I would imagine it is extremely important right now when so many of us are still building distributed apps w/o webservices. This book is pretty light on the tutorial end. But it doesn't claim to be a tutorial because it focuses on real world issues. If you are new to all of this I'd recommend you start with a webservices tutorial first. The author is also releasing a tutorial-type book on soa next year which I will buy. Also, this book has a decent support Web site (www.serviceoriented.ws) with a glossary and a diagram symbol legend that is not in the book.

Intelligently written and very thorough

Truly remarkable collection of tips and tricks and best practices covering the currently evolving SOA landscape. This guide focuses on the many ways and the many levels XML and Web Services can be integrated within the context of SOA. As such, this is not a book about theory as much as it is about dealing with real world problems. I am mystified as to why people are comparing this book to tutorials or books about Java or .NET when this book clearly states that it is an integration field guide for SOA, XML and Web Services only. As stated on the back cover, this book focuses on the common, vendor neutral ground that is established by SOA. If you are looking for a book about Java, then get a book that has "Java" in the title! If you are looking for a tutorial or a book with case studies, then don't buy a book that brands itself as a "Field Guide to Integration"! I think some of the confusion has to do with people's lack of understanding about SOA. If you don't get what this book is trying to accomplish, then you don't understand SOA. I am a Technical Architect for a progressive IT company. We have been working with Web Services for two years now, and this guide has helped me a great deal. I feel as though the author has accurately gauged the state of the IT industry's move to SOA. Although there is obviously an interest out there in SOA, most developers and architects must still contend with XML and Web Services within regular distributed architectures. For me anyway, the emphasis placed on XML, Web Services and SOA individually in this book is just right.