Confusing Service Control in Workshop Tutorial

Question

When you are adding a Service Control, Workshop Tutorial recommends to drug-and-drop
the control descriptor – the .ctrl file from another project – onto your Service
Component in the Design View. This operation confuses me because it contradicts
the Web Services principles. If the author of this tutorial intended to demonstrate
an ability of the tool to accept pre-built 3-rd party control descriptors, I think,
it would be better to demonstrate this for an Application View Control.
For Web Services, an application/user, who wants to establish communication with
a Web Service, is assumed to obtain ( find in UDDI or on a Web Site or in a Repository
) related WSDL and, then, create/build appropriate helpers to support this communication.
So, for the tutorial purposes, I suggest, the right scenario has to
1)     find the WSDL
2)     create local ( for the current project ) control descriptor, not a control
descriptor packaged into another project as it appears in existing Tutorial implementation
3)     automatically generate helper components for SOAP marshalling/unmarshalling
I have tested this scenario by copying the WSDL - CreditCardReportContract.wsdl
- into my “financialservices” project, performed WSDL-to-CTRL conversion and successfully
run it in the debugger.
I do invite your opinions on this subject!
- Michael Poulin

Answer 1

Since Workshop is recommended by BEA as a Web Services development tool, I think,
this topic may be shared between Web Services and Workshop newsgroups.
Point in my comment is not about ability or disability of Workshop of copying
CTRL files into your project. I tried to explain that this feature is inadequate
to Web Services in general if it substitutes WSDL.
I would certainly agree with and appreciate a feature that allows me, as a developer,
to reuse already existing Control Descriptor available in MY environment. However,
the Tutorial does not teach “to copy the control's CTRL file to a common folder”.
Instead, it follows the statement: “If the control will be used only by a single
web service in your project, you may choose to copy the CTRL file to the same
folder as your web service”. I doubt that the statement represents Best Practices
– it couples projects by a derivative, not by the resource. That is, if WSDL has
been changed, the 3-rd project can re-build CTRL file for itself, you project
gets into troubles ( it is obvious, right ? ).
Using Workshop, I am trying to understand how BEA recommends working with Web
Services. I recognize the power of Connector architecture and common approach
to resources accessibility represented by CTRL files. At the same time, I see
that a repository of CTRL files for Web Services can shield developers from Web
Services in WebLogic environment. If this is an accidental consequence, it has
to be clearly explained, if not fixed; if it is an intention, I would like to
hear the BEA comments on how this relates to known WSDL repositories, other standards,
and reliability of Web Services in the enterprise environment, at least.
Thank you,
- Michael
"Anurag Pareek" <[email protected]> wrote:
Michael,
For questions regarding Workshop, I will suggest you to post to the
'weblogic.developer.interest.workshop' newsgroup.
Regarding this query, the docs do state explicitly the following, which
I
guess addresses your concern:
If the CTRL file for the control you wish to use is not in your project,
you
must copy it to your project. The destination to which you copy the control
depends on your expected usage. If the control will be used only by a
single
web service in your project, you may choose to copy the CTRL file to
the
same folder as your web service. If multiple web services in different
folders in your project may use the control, you may wish to copy the
control's CTRL file to a common folder. Remember that the CTRL file must
be
in your WebLogic Workshop project.
Wherever you decide to place the control's CTRL file, it must be in your
WebLogic Workshop project.
Do let me know if you have further inputs.
Regards,
Anurag
"Michael Poulin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
When you are adding a Service Control, Workshop Tutorial recommendsto
drug-and-drop
the control descriptor - the .ctrl file from another project - ontoyour
Service
Component in the Design View. This operation confuses me because itcontradicts
the Web Services principles. If the author of this tutorial intendedto
demonstrate
an ability of the tool to accept pre-built 3-rd party control descriptors,I think,
it would be better to demonstrate this for an Application View Control.
For Web Services, an application/user, who wants to establishcommunication with
a Web Service, is assumed to obtain ( find in UDDI or on a Web Siteor in
a Repository
) related WSDL and, then, create/build appropriate helpers to supportthis
communication.
So, for the tutorial purposes, I suggest, the right scenario has to
1) find the WSDL
2) create local ( for the current project ) control descriptor, nota
control
descriptor packaged into another project as it appears in existingTutorial implementation
3) automatically generate helper components for SOAPmarshalling/unmarshalling
I have tested this scenario by copying the WSDL -CreditCardReportContract.wsdl
- into my "financialservices" project, performed WSDL-to-CTRL conversionand successfully
run it in the debugger.
I do invite your opinions on this subject!
- Michael Poulin