Open Source SOA Platform - Everything you need to build SOAs

There are many proprietary as well as Open Source SOA products in the market. Most of these vendors (if not all) do not offer a Complete set of tools to build SOA's. Some of them may offer an ESB and a Governance Solution while another may offer just an ESB and so on. So isn't there a single Vendor that offers a Complete SOA stack?

Well not really, If you've heard of WSO2 then you would have heard about our SOA platform. I see three distinct advantages in WSO2's SOA platform.

1. Its a Complete Platform which offers everything you need to build your SOA - What WSO2 provides is not a set of isolated products, its a complete SOA platform where each product can work with another on the same platform. It provides tools for Service creation in Various Languages (Java, C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, JavaScript) , Service Composition, SOA Governance, Tools to Consume Services in various languages (Java, C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, JavaScript), and tools for Connecting Services.
2. Its completely Open Source under the Apache License - No Gimmicks, No Community version or Enterprise Version. What you get is Production quality code and its free for you to use the way you wish.
3. Enterprise level Support from WSO2 which comprise of a set of leaders in the SOA space. You get consultancy from the Architects and the Engineers themselves, Engineers who know every hook and corner of the products.

Interested? All of these products are released under the Apache Licence (No Strings attached) so go ahead download it and try it out yourself. You can provide us your feedback by posting your comments on our forums or dropping us a mail.

What is WSO2?

For those of you who do not know what WSO2 is here is an Elevator Pitch that tries to explain it in a couple of minutes.

Customer uses WSO2 products to Increase Productivity

This article shows how Concur used the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (WSO2 ESB) and the WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSO2 WSAS) to increase there productivity. It also states that the solution was build in a mere 3 hours whereas it took 3 weeks to build it with pure Java. The following is a quote from the article,

"In the initial deployment, the WSO2 data services technology was able to access the database and convert data into a SOAP message in "literally two minutes," according to Svee. During a training session with WSO2, the Concur team used the "WSO2 ESB to replicate a data synchronization system in three hours that the group had previously taken three weeks to build in Java.""

Basket Ball @ WSO2 in Full Swing

Work while you work,
Play while you play,
This is the way
To be happy each day.

Thats exactly what we do at WSO2, although we do play a bit while we work as well ;).

We are having a Basket Ball tournament at WSO2 these days. The tournament is in full swing as we draw near to the business end of the tournament, the Finals and Third place play offs. Quite a few of our guys (Tyrell, Ruwan Janapriya, Saliya) have been busy taking photos as well.

As with any tournament we've had our fair share of Injuries too. Sameera - a twisted ankle, Chanaka - a cracked lip, Sanjaya Ratnaweera - a dislocated wrist and the latest victim Sumedha with a sprained ankle. Oh and I almost missed poor Devaka who is suffering from a Sore finger and a sore toe ;).

I'm sure this first aid tips that Sumedha had got from his doctor would come in handy in the coming weeks.

WSF/PHP 2.0 Released!

The WSF/PHP team has released the 2.0 version of WSF/PHP (Web Services Framework for PHP). This release promises a bunch of new and cool features. Some of the more prominent ones are,

• Improved REST support
• Support for SecureConversation
  
• Support for SWA (SOAP with Attachments)
• Improved MTOM (SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism) Support
• Integrated PHP data Services support
• WS-RM (Web Services Reliable Messaging) 1.1 support

Please refer the release note for the full list of features. You can also visit the PHP demo site for a feel of what WSF/PHP has to offer. It contains Code Samples, demos and tutorials.

You can also download the Stock Trader 2.0 demo which shows how WSO2 WSF/PHP, WSO2 WSF/Ruby, WSO2 WSF/Spring, WSO2 WSF/Perl, WSO2 WSF/Python and WSO2 WSAS inteoperates with the Microsoft .NET platform.

Learn About the Enterprise Capabilities in the WSO2 Mashup Server

There were several feature additions in the 1.5 release of the WSO2 Mashup Server. Among them were features that enable you to author Enterprise level mashups with ease. These features include support for message-level security (Authentication, Integrity ,Confidentiality) on mashups, and the ability to expose data sources such as a relational database, an Excel spreadsheet or a simple CSV file as a zero-coding Data Service.

Want to learn how to use these cool enterprise features in the WSO2 Mashup Server? Join this free webinar that will be presented by Jonathan Marsh the Director of Architecture for Mashup Technologies at WSO2.

WSO2 Mashup Server 1.5.1 Released

Its been just more over two weeks since we did the 1.5 release of the Mashup Server. This release fixes a couple of bugs that were present in the 1.5 release and also adds a few features (little) that we though were important. The bug fixes include

• E-mail host object fix
• Auto-generated stubs of data services fix
  

A few of the features (little) we've included are

• Fixes to JMS and SMTP transports (Tried and Tested)
• Ability to try services over JMS and SMTP (via script injection)
• Provide the ability to manage a users private key
• Minor usability issues fixed

You can have a look at the full list of fixes here. This release adds value to the plenty of cool features we added to the 1.5 release. Download it and tryit out yourself as its available freely under the Apache License.

As Jonathan has mentined in his blog post I will be working on a article on how you could use the JMS and SMTP transports with the Mashup Server. You would be amazed on how easy it is to do so...

Benefits of an Open Source SOA solution

Stumbled upon an interesting article on the benefits of an Open Source SOA solution, and I cant agree more with it. It lists 5 advantages of using Open Source to leverage SOA needs. They are,

• Try before you buy
• Lower cost of entry
• Cost effective support
• Core competency
• For the people by the people
  

Let me elaborate on point 4 above (Core competency) with respect to WSO2. At WSO2 we've build a complete SOA platform from scratch. The core components we use was designed with SOA in mind. They were not mere afterthoughts.

The article also mentions WSO2 as a major open source stack provider. And its a pretty impressive stack at that, at WSO2 the whole SOA stack we have is open source. Products of this stack include the Fastest Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in the form of the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), the award winning WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS a runtime for hosting services), the WSO2 Registry, the WSO2 Mashup Server (which helps you compose services using JavaScript with the E4X extension). In addition to this it also provides frameworks such as WSF/Spring, WSF/C and WSF C++ which help build/invoke services. It has also extended its frameworks to the various scripting languages in the form of WSF/PHP, WSF/Ruby, WSF/Python and WSF/Perl. All these frameworks help you build/invoke enterprise grade services which may have WS-Security, WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Addressing etc...

WSO2 has been around for around 3 years and thats a pretty impressive product portfolio for a company that young.

Web Services Cannot Get Any Simpler

If someone was to ask "what is the easiest method to write a Web Service?" my definite answer would be the WSO2 Mashup Server. The WSO2 Mashup Server helps you write services (or Mashups which ever you want to call it) using JavaScript with the E4X extension. Will blog more about E4X and its ease of use in the coming days (Stay tuned for that). Writing Services using the Mashup Server can be done in a matter of minutes. Here is the simplest Web Service you could write,

function sayHello() {
return "Hello";
}

Just drop this bit of script as a file into a magic folder (Into your mashups folder found in the scripts directory. Each user is given his own mashups folder depicted by his username) with the .js extension (example hello.js) and your service will get deployed. Lets assume that hello.js was dropped into scripts/keith. This would make the service available at http://localhost:7762/services/keith/hello. Browse to the above location and see what happens. The Mashup Server will show you a tryit page. This is a page thats generated by the Mashup Server on the fly so that you can test your web service out.

You can even access the sayHello service by pointing your browser to http://localhost:7762/services/keith/hello/sayHello. This would invoke the sayHello function in a RESTfull manner.

One can also use the Mashup Server without downloading it. Check out mooshup.com which is a Mashup Server that we've hosted for you. Try creating your own mashups there (You will have to use the UI to create services there cause you do not have direct access to the file system). You can even create a mashup on your local distribution and share it to mooshup. You can have a look at this simple hello service at https://mooshup.com/mashup.jsp?path=/mashups/keith/hello. BTW the Mashup Server is released under the Apache License. So you can download and give it a try your self too. There are no restrictions.

This is the simplest Web Service one could write. The Mashup Server has capabilities to do much more for you. Please refer the Mashup Server project page for more details.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks about the WSO2 Mashup Server and also Apache Axis2 (The engine behind the Mashup Server)

Learn About The Fastest Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Around

You may have already seen how fast the WSO2 Enterprise service Bus (ESB) is. Want to learn how to use this ultra fast, light-weight and versatile Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) powered by the Apache Synapse ESB?

Well we got an answer for you. Join our free webinar series this July. There will be four webinars in total ranging from an "Introduction to the WSO2 ESB" to more advanced scenarios such as "Using the WSO2 ESB and FIX - supporting Financial messaging".

FIX support is the latest addition to the WSO2 ESB which is available in the recently released 1.7 version. This series of webinars will be presented by Paul Fremantle, CTO at WSO2 together with Asankha Perera ( ESB Architect), Asanka Abeysinghe (Architect) and Ruwan Linton (Senior Software Engineer).

Training session on Apache Axis2

A couple of weeks ago we were fortunate to attend a training on Axis2 which was conducted by Deepal. There is no better person to teach Axis2 than Deepal himself cause he has been involved with this project since its inception. Deepal is one of the six core Axis2 authors. The others are Srinath, Eran Chinthaka, Ajith, Chathura and Jaliya. There have been many others who've help Axis2 once the project started going, but these were the guys involved in building the core of it. Not to forget Dr. Sanjiva for all the advice and guidance provided.

The guys who knew Axis2 to some extent were able to make to most of this training, as we were able to question certain decisions made at that time.

Its also nice to note that except for Deepal. the rest are already reading for there PhDs. Deepal will be joining that list next month when he will head off for higher studies. Its also a interesting that the core Axis2 team has been associated with WSO2.

Deepal has also published his first book on Axis2 "Quickstart Apache Axis2" which is now available in the stores.

The Axis2 training was a great success so now its time to learn some policy. Again there will be no better person than Sanka himself, the person behind Apache Neethi (The policy engine used for Apache Axis2 as well as CXF). Once next week is done all of WSO2 will be policy experts too.

All of these are a part on continuous improvement to us.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Performance Revealed

It was recently that WSO2 released the 1.7 version of its Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). This release is based on Apache Synapse 1.2 which in turn is built on Apache Axis2 1.4.

There are many things that come in to play when deciding on which ESB to go with. Some of them are Performance, Licensing, Usability, Stability... etc. WSO2 has always been at the forefront when it comes to benchmarking ESB performance. You can find previous performance comparisons here and here. We've always been open as to how we conduct them and has always tried to get help from the relevant projects on how to configure them best.

Asankha the product manager of the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) recently published performance results based on its 1.7 release. The WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) was compared with other leading implementations - both open source and proprietary. This comparison was done against a leading proprietary ESB, the proprietary version of an Open Source ESB, Apache Service Mix 3.2.1 and Mule Community Edition 2.0.1 (Mule CE). We cannot disclose the names of these proprietary ESB's cause they have a clause in there License saying that "Thou shalt not publish any performance results against us".

The results were pretty impressive. The WSO2 ESB outperformed all open source alternatives and it also outperformed the proprietary version of an Open Source ESB. Now what does that mean? The WSO2 ESB is the fastest open source ESB around (And thats with no specific performance tuning, Expect better results in the time to come.). The WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) also displayed excellent stability on all scenarios.

Another interesting observation is that 1% of all requests sent to Mule CE 2.0.1 failing. Now who would want to use such a product in a production environment?

Paul among the Best

Paul has been listed as one of Infoworld's top 25 CTOs. This is a huge achievement for Paul as well as WSO2 (whom Paul is a co-founder of).

Take a look at what Paul himself has to say about this achievement. I agree with Paul a 100% about what he has to say about the culture at WSO2, "I strongly believe - and long may it continue - that WSO2 doesn't suffer from "Drive By Architecture" syndrome". WSO2 is flat structured, even though there are co-founders, CTOs, Product Managers and so on when it comes to a technical debate each and every member at WSO2 has a role to play. Their thoughts and ideas are taken seriously and is not looked down on.

The team spirit we have at WSO2 is tremendous and it's a pleasure to be a part of WSO2.