You may be wondering, why hasn't the uptake of Web services matched the bold predictions made when it was first launched? There are certainly more developers thinking about Web services with the advent of service-oriented architectures (SOA). However, the number of successful public Web services projects seems to be limited to a few high-profile companies like eBay and Amazon that have published APIs and end points, or developers who have been able to implement services internally but with a narrow and well-defined set of services - still a long way from the smart application that could self-select services at runtime.

Since Web 2.0 kicked off scarcely a day goes by without a headline targeting mashups and their enablers, AJAX and Web Services, as the next hot Web technologies. Mashups are Web sites that integrate a variety of services (e.g., news feeds, weather reports, maps, and traffic conditions) in new and interesting ways. Just take a look at Zillow.com, which provides instant home valuations plotted as thumbtacks on a map (Figure 1), or HousingMaps.com, which marks listings from craigslist.org as captions on a map, and you'll get a clear picture of the power behind converging data sources.

In my previous article, 'Enterprise Mashup Services: Real-World SOA or Web 2.0 Novelties?' (JDJ Vol. 11, Issue 12), I discussed how a Java-to-AJAX library such as Direct Web Remoting (DWR) can bridge the gap between mashup services implemented with JavaScript and business services written in Java, allowing developers to blend corporate services with external services such as Google Maps. The problem with this approach is that it relies on AJAX as an integration point, which entails a fragile development platform as well as the need to maintain browser-specific code due to idiosyncrasies in browser support for JavaScript - the primary technology behind AJAX. In addition, JavaScript lacks a standardized approach for componentizing code, making applications written in it difficult to consolidate and reuse. The solution to these shortcomings is to pair AJAX with a component framework. JavaServer Faces (JSF) provides this foundation and eliminates the complexities of JavaScript - besides providing rich integration with the Java EE platform.

One of the great things about the Java programming language is the Open Source community that provides great applications at little or no cost. An example of this is Apache Tomcat, which provides a solid Web server for development using servlet or JSP technology. Now that Web Service technology is maturing there's a potential for a whole scenario of applications to take advantage of a Swing feature-rich thin client on the front-end coupled to the data verification and business logic already developed in the Web or ejb tier. Such applications are only viable if they can be secure, however, security doesn't have to come at a great cost. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Web Service clients can use self-signed security certificates over the secure HTTPS protocol.

The creation and popularity of Web Services are growing rapidly in every industry. With this continued growth, more and more programmers find themselves writing code that, even if it's not currently packaged as a Web Service, will eventually be exposed as one.

To meet the growing need for web services security, Parasoft has introduced SOAPtest 4.0, which the company contends is 'the first product to offer penetration testing as an integrated component of a comprehensive, automated Web services testing suite.' SOAPtest 4.0 introduces automated, repeatable penetration testing at the message level to detect Web services security vulnerabilities.

If you're reading this at the Web Services Edge 2005 East Conference, you're probably having a great time. If, on the other hand, it's before February 15th, you might still have time to get to Boston and attend. For anyone interested in Web services or XML, this conference will be big.

The first upgrade in almost two years, Sun Microsystems has released its latest version of the company's application server. This offering from Sun is something developers have been longing for, Java-centric developers in particular.

Sun Microsystems has announced the newest version of the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP). The new Java WSDP version 1.4 helps enable developers to more rapidly build and deploy secure and interoperable Web services.

How J2EE Connector Architecture and JTA specifications can be implemented to build such an adapter, XAFileConnector.

You may have to dig beneath the hype a little, but at any gathering of 40 Java vendors there's bound to be some treasure buried in there somewhere. It's just waiting for you to find it.

If you weren't there, a couple of years from now you'll misremember and say you were. That's how big - how momentous - Web Services Edge 2001 West and XMLEdge were. Call that late October conference in Santa Clara the Woodstock of Web services because this is the one everyone wishes they has attended.

If you search under Web services in Yahoo! the results include religious supplies and services, translation services, adult entertainment, and Internet services; however, that's all about to change. Web services are going to be the next great thing.

Web services are the 'new kids on the block' and as with all adolescent technologies they are can be a little troublesome, take time to understand and always testing you with something new. Given this, how does a developer get started with Web services? And for those more experienced, how does the developer speed up the developing, debugging, and deployment cycle?

Common Object Request Broker Architecture and Java are among the newest emerging technologies revolving around IP and Internet applications. The CORBA specification defines an industry-wide standard infrastructure that simplifies the integration of software systems using object-oriented techniques. CORBA separates architecture and implementation from interface specification, allowing clients and servers to be implemented in any language, on any platform.

Many people consider Push an application specifically for the Internet. In fact, there is a growing number of corporations using Push as an Intranet application at the departmental level as well as corporation-wide. The Forrester Group predicts that by the year 2000, the enterprise market for Push will be approaching $300 million.