Jesus Rodriguez's WebLog : Oracle

Microsoft’s StreamInsight first thoughts

gsusx — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:19:00 GMT

I spent this weekend toying with Microsoft StreamInsight bits. I have a few blog posts planned for the next few days that tackle very specific CEP patterns but I figure it might make sense to start by highlighting some of the features I think differentiate...(read more)

Oracle Open World

gsusx — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:18:00 GMT

Thanks to all the folks who attended to my presentation Taming Web Services Interoperability at Oracle Open World. I've really enjoyed presenting for an Oracle-centric audience and we got some great reception and feedback . I will make the demos available...(read more)

Speaking at Oracle Open World

gsusx — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:24:00 GMT

This weekend I am heading to San Francisco to speak at Oracle Open World (OOW). The topic ( take a guess :) )Web Services interoperability between WCF and Oracle WebLogic. This time, I have the pleasure of sharing stage with Pyounguk Cho, Product Manager...(read more)

Oracle WebLogic Server

gsusx — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:35:00 GMT

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style...(read more)

Oracle SOA Suite 11g

gsusx — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:35:00 GMT

I've playing around with the new preview of Oracle SOA Suite . Among the new features, Business Events is the most attractive to me and it can be considered Oracle's first iteration towards a complete Complex Event Processing platform based on different...(read more)

Composite Services using Oracle ESB Routing Services

gsusx — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:37:00 GMT

Message routing is one of the most used and attractive features of Enterprise Service Buses (ESB). Unfortunately, the traditional view of message routing, most of the times, is reduced exclusively to service orchestration and choreography scenarios. In...(read more)

Speaking at NYC Connected Systems User Group

gsusx — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:59:00 GMT

Next Monday I will be speaking at the New York Connected Systems User Group in the Microsoft NYC offices http://www.nyccsug.org . The session is going to be focused on Web Services Interoperability. Specifically I am going to be speaking and demonstrating...(read more)

MTOM interoperability between Oracle App Server and Sun WSIT

gsusx — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:55:00 GMT

A few months ago I wrote a couple of articles ( WCF-ORA , ORA-WCF ) about Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) interoperability between Oracle Application Server and Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Most of the feedback...(read more)

Oracle ACE award

gsusx — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:06:00 GMT

If you have been following this blog during last year you know I have been doing a lot of work with J2EE .NET Web Services interoperability. Specifically, a lot of my work and papers have been focused on Oracle .NET interoperability. Well, a few weeks...(read more)

Message oriented interoperability between WCF channels and Oracle Application Server WSIF

gsusx — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 02:02:00 GMT

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} By Jesus Rodriguez Overview A few weeks ago, in an SOA forum, someone inquired about which technologies to use...(read more)

JMS based Web Services in Oracle App Server Part 1: WCF Interoperability

gsusx — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:00:00 GMT

By Jesus Rodriguez This is the first of two articles intended to illustrate Java Messaging Service (JMS)-based Web Services using Oracle Application Server. Specifically, this article focuses on how to achieve JMS .NET interoperability through JMS-based...(read more)

Oracle SOA blog

gsusx — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:34:00 GMT

My buddy Matt Wright is one the most prolific bloggers about Oracle technologies. He is currently relocating his blog to a new location . If you want to learn about real world deployments of the Oracle SOA Products and its interoperability with Microsoft...(read more)

SOA Suite best practices

gsusx — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 04:39:00 GMT

My friend Clemens Utsching and colleagues has started writing the Oracle SOA Suite best practices. The first three articles of the series are super worth reading.

MTOM Interoperability between Oracle Application Server and Windows Communication Foundation Part2: From Oracle to WCF

gsusx — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:39:00 GMT

By Jesus Rodriguez

This article is part of a series intended to illustrate WS-* protocols interoperability scenarios between Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and different J2EE Web Services platforms. Particularly this article focus on MTOM interoperability between WCF and Oracle Application Server v10.1.3.

Binary data exchange using MTOM is a unique Web Services interoperability case given the specific problems that it tackles. Other WS-* protocols presents a broader set of options allowing one to achieve different levels of interoperability. MTOM on the other hand is an exclusive scenario; services can either be or not be optimized with MTOM, but there is no intermediate level. This is why bidirectional MTOM interoperability between technologies is so important.

The first part of this article illustrated a MTOM interoperability scenario between a WCF client and an Oracle App Server Web Service. The following section presents a complementary scenario using an Oracle App Server client and a WCF Service.

Implementation: Building a WCF Service that uses MTOM

The following code shows a WCF service that returns the contents of a file as a binary array.

[ServiceContract()]

public interface IFileService

{

[OperationContract()]

byte[] GetImg(string path);

}

public class FileService : IFileService

{

public byte[] GetImg(string path)

{

return File.ReadAllBytes(path);

}

To optimize the message exchange for this service using MTOM we need to configure the MTOM Encoding Binding element as part of the customBinding. In addition, to guarantee interoperability with Oracle App Server, the service should be configured to use Soap 1.2.

<system.serviceModel>

<host>

</baseAddresses>

</host>

</service>

</services>

<httpTransport manualAddressing="false" maxBufferPoolSize="524288"

maxReceivedMessageSize="65536" allowCookies="false" authenticationScheme="Anonymous"

bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"

keepAliveEnabled="true" maxBufferSize="65536" proxyAuthenticationScheme="Anonymous"

realm="" transferMode="Buffered" unsafeConnectionNtlmAuthentication="false"

useDefaultWebProxy="true" />

</binding>

</customBinding>

</bindings>

</behavior>

</serviceBehaviors>

</behaviors>

</system.serviceModel>

Implementation: Building an Oracle App Server client that uses MTOM

As we explained in the first part of this article, Oracle Application Server supports MTOM as part of its 10.1.3.1 release. The first step to create an MTOM client for the WCF service created on the previous section is to generate the proxy using the Web Service Proxy Wizard included in JDeveloper or the corresponding command-line tool. In order to interface with WCF using MTOM, the client code should set the MTOM_SUPPORT property to “True” either programmatically or using the configuration file. The following code shows a sample client that interacts with the WCF service created in the previous section.

public static void CallWS()

{

try

{

wsprj.proxy.WSHttpBinding_IFileServiceClient binding = new wsprj.proxy.WSHttpBinding_IFileServiceClient();

IFileService proxy= binding.getPort();

((OracleStub)proxy)._setProperty(ClientConstants.MTOM_SUPPORT, true);

byte[] result= binding.getImg(file path…);

System.out.println(result.length);

}

catch(Exception ex){}

}

Running this client will produce the following SOAP request and response messages. As you might notice, the response message is optimized using MTOM.

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="http://tempuri.org/"><env:Body><ns0:GetImg><ns0:path>c:\temp\test2.file</ns0:path></ns0:GetImg></env:Body></env:Envelope>

SOAP request produced by the Oracle client

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"><s:Body><GetImgResponse xmlns="http://tempuri.org/"><GetImgResult><xop:Include href="cid:http%3A%2F%2Ftempuri.org%2F1%2F633013057872812500" xmlns:xop="http://www.w3.org/2004/08/xop/include"/></GetImgResult></GetImgResponse></s:Body></s:Envelope>

SOAP response produced by the WCF service

Where are we?

MTOM provides a standard and an optimized mechanism to represent binary data in a SOAP envelope. The two parts of this article explained how to achieve MTOM interoperability between Microsoft WCF and Oracle Application Server. The first part explored an interoperability scenario using a WCF client and an Oracle App Server Web Service. This second part has complemented that scenario using a WCF Service with an Oracle App Server client.

MTOM Interoperability between Oracle Application Server and Windows Communication Foundation Part1: From WCF to Oracle

gsusx — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:51:00 GMT

By Jesus Rodriguez

Optimizing XML data transmission: The need for interoperability

The use of XML vs. binary data has been the eternal argument since the early days of XML-RPC and the subsequent SOAP specifications. In some scenarios, XML data formats can add significant overhead compared with the processing of binary data. This is cause for concern with many architects. However, the use of XML has made vendors agree for first time in a series of protocols and standards for data transmission.

To assume that binary messages are always smaller than XML messages is overlooking one of the most complex challenges in data transmission today. However, binary data is present in a significant percent of data exchange scenarios.

From the Web Services viewpoint, the standards to encode binary data as part of SOAP messages had been evolving for a few years now. However at every step of that evolution, the implementation of interoperable Web Services that can exchange binary data across multiple platforms had raised as an interesting and difficult challenge for developers. Finally, after WS-Attachments and DIME, MTOM has gained acceptance among the different vendors as the main protocol to represent optimized binary data in a SOAP envelope.

MTOM

MTOM, the acronym that identifies the unpronounceable Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism, enables you to send binary data as part of a SOAP message in an efficient and optimized manner. The classic solution for embedding binary data in a XML document is to use a base64 encoded representation. Although, the based64 format presents severe limitations in regards to optimizing a binary representation. These limitations are primarily due to the use of 6 out of every 8 bits to encode a base64 character. That factor alone represents a 4:3 extra encoding overhead plus the addition of extra characters. The result is a significant increase in the size of a base64 encoded string.

MTOM avoids this overhead, attaching the binary data to the XML file in the original format without any extra encoding. MTOM relies on the XML Optimized Processing (XOP) Standard as the serialization mechanism to represent binary data as a MIME/Multipart Related package. For more information about MTOM you should read this great post by John Evdemon.

Despite of the fact that MTOM is W3C Standard; the need for interoperable implementations is key for MTOM to become a widely adopted protocol. During the last year different vendors had provided MTOM implementations as part of their Web Services platforms making MTOM interoperability a need and a challenge for the industry. This is even more significant when dealing with Web Services interoperability between.NET and J2EE, given that both platforms have followed different evolution paths.

The following sections are intended to illustrate an interoperability scenario using Oracle App Server and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

MTOM and WCF

MTOM is supported in WCF as part of the encoder model. An encoder implements a set of basics rules to represent the message on the wire. Encoders exist at both the client and the service side and are typically configured using encoding binding elements.

Oracle App Server and MTOM

With the recent release of the Application Server 10.1.3.1, Oracle adds supports for MTOM in addition to the existent MIME and DIME attachments. MTOM is now supported at both the client and the service side, only however, using SOAP 1.2.

The following sections illustrate how to build an Oracle Web Service and a WCF client that exchange binary messages optimized using MTOM

Using MTOM in Oracle App Server

As the center of our example lets use the following Web Service that returns a byte[] representing a binary file.

public class FileTransmitter {

public FileTransmitter() {

}

public byte[] GetImg(String path)

{

try {

ReadableByteChannel channel = new FileInputStream(path).getChannel();

ByteBuffer buf = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(12000);

byte[] result= new byte[12000];

int numRead = 0;

while (numRead >= 0) {

buf.rewind();

numRead = channel.read(buf);

buf.rewind();

for (int i=0; i<numRead; i++) {

byte b = buf.get();

result[i]= b;

}

return result;

}

catch (Exception e)

{

return null;

}

Without using MTOM the response of this Web Service looks like the following.

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="http://wsprj/types/"><env:Body><ns0:GetImgResponseElement><ns0:result>a2V5dG9vbCAtZ2Vua2

V5IC1hbGlhcyB0ZXN0IC1rZXlhbGcgIlJTQSIgLXNpZ2F

sZyAiU0hBMXdpdGhSU0EiIC1kbmFtZSAiQ049dGVzdCwgQz1VUyIgLWtleXBhc3MgdGVzdDEyMyA

ta2V5c3RvcmUgdGVzdC5qa3MgLXN0b3JlcGFzcyB0ZXN0MTIzDQoNCmtle

XRvb2wgLWNlcnRyZXEgLWFsaWFzIHRlc3QgLXQxMjMAAAAAAAAA ... binary file</ns0:result></ns0:GetImgResponseElement></env:Body></env:Envelope>

As you can see the entire file is serialized as a base64 string and embedded into the SOAP message.

In order to configure MTOM at the service side is necessary to set the mtom-support setting to true in the web services configuration file.

<oracle-webservices xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://xmlns.oracle.com/oracleas/schema/oracle-webservices-10_0.xsd">

<webservice-description name="OraMtomWS">

<port-component name="OraMtomWSSoap12HttpPort">

<mtom-support>true</mtom-support>

</operations>

</port-component>

</webservice-description>

</oracle-webservices>

With those two simple steps the Web Service is ready to deploy to the Oracle Application Server.

Building the WCF client

The first step to create a WCF client is to generate the proxy using the SvcUtil tool. The following code is a sample client that invokes the Oracle Web Service.

static void Main(string[] args)

{

GetImgClient();

}

private static void GetImgClient()

{

OraMtomWSClient proxy = new OraMtomWSClient();

byte[] result = proxy.GetImg("c:\\temp\\test2.file");

Console.ReadLine();

}

In order to achieve interoperability with Oracle App Server, the WCF client needs to encode the messages using SOAP 1.2 and MTOM. The following code illustrates the client configuration file.

<system.serviceModel>

<httpTransport manualAddressing="false" maxBufferPoolSize="524288"

maxReceivedMessageSize="65536" allowCookies="false" authenticationScheme="Anonymous"

bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"

keepAliveEnabled="true" maxBufferSize="65536" proxyAuthenticationScheme="Anonymous"

realm="" transferMode="Buffered" unsafeConnectionNtlmAuthentication="false"

useDefaultWebProxy="true" />

</binding>

</customBinding>

</bindings>

<endpoint address="http://server/WSInterop-WSPrj-context-root/OraMtomWSSoap12HttpPort"

binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="OraMtomWSSoap12Http"

contract="OraMtomWS" name="OraMtomWSSoap12HttpPort" />

</client>

</system.serviceModel>

</configuration>

The above settings configure the server to receive MTOM messages using SOAP 1.2. Executing the client produces the following messages on the wire.

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"><s:Body><GetImgElement xmlns="http://wsprj/types/"><path>file path…</path></GetImgElement></s:Body></s:Envelope>

Figure SOAP request produced by the WCF client

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="http://wsprj/types/"><env:Body><ns0:GetImgResponseElement><ns0:result>

<xop:Include xmlns:xop="http://www.w3.org/2004/08/xop/include" href="cid:7cfa880ad11d4faa90eadbc06de797c5"/></ns0:result></ns0:GetImgResponseElement>

</env:Body></env:Envelope>

Figure SOAP response produced by the Oracle Web Service

As you can see there is notable size difference between this response and the message produced when MTOM is not used. Regardless of the size factor, containing the message in its original binary format makes the MTOM message optimal when processing the binary data.

Where are we?

MTOM provides a standard and optimized mechanism to represent binary data in a SOAP envelope. This article explained the required steps create a Windows Communication Foundation client that can achieve MTOM interoperability with an Oracle Application Server web Service. The second part of this article will complement this scenario demonstrating interoperability between Oracle client and a Windows Communication Foundation service.