Using OSB for Public API (REST)

Question

Hi there,
Is it a good practice to use Oracle Service Bus to expose a PUBLIC REST API?
The idea is to have a separeted OSB instance which will be in the WEB so that other partners and applications (Native Mobile, for instance) can access some of our services. The application layer will have many different applications, like SAP, JEE systems, Cobol and others. But the public API will be design in a more RESTful fashion.
What about security?
What about performance? (Parsing JMS, XML and others into JSON will probably create extra load into the OSB).
What are be the advantages of using OSB instead of a more traditional Service Layer?
P.S.: We are being careful with the design of our API, sometimes the underlying system doesn't help, so some transformation has to happen (more load!) in order to make the API elegant and meaningful.
Cheers

Answer 1

Personally, I'd prefer Collections as they are nice to work with. Their only annoying issue is certainly the constant casting as soon as you retrieve Objects from them.
I do not consider the documentation of what those Collection include too big a problem. Just include a line for each Collection parameter stating "Set of Strings" or the like. I wouldn't even check the type through instanceof, I'd just cast. If a ClassCastException is thrown, I think that's the proper thing to do.
As you might have noticed, there is a proposal of "Generics" for Java, which would adopt something like those template classes known in C++. There is even a beta implementation available, so you can go ahead and code your Set<String>. Time will tell if this proposal finds its way into the official Java standard, the drawback being a more complex syntax. If you want to know more about it, check out those links:
http://forum.java.sun.com/forum.jsp?forum=316
http://www.jcp.org/jsr/detail/14.jsp
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/earlyAccess/adding_generics