“We are clearly moving from dynamic visual interfaces to dynamic non-visual services, all accessible over the internet. All of this is Web 2.0- which is really a Global SOA.”
Frank Cohen, Push To Test, from his twitters.
This chimes with some arguments Duane Nickull of Adobe is currently putting forward. We’re working on a book about Web 2.0 patterns and I argued that SOA was anathema to Web 2.0. As I put it- name one Web 2.0 service based on an SOA. Duane pushes back that the core patterns are the same, once you’re suitably abstracted. He has a point. Messages, standard interfaces, a bus architecture, and so on.
I have been thinking about the transition from UIs to services a fair bit. Does it makes sense to talk about a RESTful SOA? Duane thinks so. Of course we need to get beyond/decouple WS-* from “SOA” to start appreciating that SOA thinking has real value in lightweight projects .Its ironic that SOA as a concept has become so tightly coupled to WS-* specs.
It seems Frank is thinking about SOA more broadly. Not surprising given push to test provides test automation across distributed apps. Frank demoed his product at the first RedmonkOne day at JavaOne.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I have to say I love the picture pushtotest used on its web site. It seems more representative of real people in the business than your usual slick multi-ethnic corporate homepage.
Mark Masterson says:
June 29, 2007 at 7:03 pm
James, have you found time yet to read Sam Ruby’s new book? (http://www.amazon.co.uk/RESTful-Web-Services-Leonard-Richardson/dp/0596529260/ref=sr_1_2/026-1910931-4577256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183143648&sr=8-2)
I just ordered mine from Amazon.
Mark Masterson says:
June 29, 2007 at 7:24 pm
James, have you found time yet to read Sam Ruby’s new book? (http://www.amazon.co.uk/RESTful-Web-Services-Leonard-Richardson/dp/0596529260/ref=sr_1_2/026-1910931-4577256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183143648&sr=8-2)
I just ordered mine from Amazon.
BTW, this — RESTful SOA — is basically what I’ve been trying to get at, in the last few posts on my blog. Given the audience that I’m pitching to, that’s a radical message, so the path I’m taking is a bit roundabout. But that’s where I’m heading.
Tom Carroll says:
July 2, 2007 at 4:24 am
I agree with Duane that Web 2.0 is underpinned in many cases by SOA. The complex APIs offered by companies like Google and Amazon are clear examples of a broad move toward SOA. Companies like SAP are driving to abstract their products in an effort to deliver the agility and innovation that we see today in the Web 2.0 space. The really great thing is that as we see increased continuity of applications across computing platforms. The ubiquity of the Web is creating a liquidity of capability that used to be confined to private networks, complex desktop applications and proprietary platforms. These are fun times.