In some views SOA is represented as a series of 4 layers: Presentation Layer (SOA 1), Business Process Layer (SOA 2), Business Service Layer (SOA 3) and Technical Layer (SOA 4). Typically each layer higher up in the hierarchy consumes services exposed by the layer under it. So the Presentation Layer would consume services provided by the Business Process or Business Service Layers. Service interfaces are described using Web Services Description Language (WSDL), sheltering service consumers from details of service implementation. Web Services are seen as the technical means to implement the decoupled functional layers in a SOA development. Decoupling allows implementations of business functionality at different layers to be swapped in and out without disturbing other layers in the stack. The SOA 1, Presentation Layer, is often implemented as JSR-168-compliant or JSR-286-complaint Portlets, exposed through a standards-based Portal.
The business idea is that patients are looked after in various healthcare facilities. Applications need to allow selection of a facility and to access facility details for display to human operators. A relational holds details of facilities which are a part of the healthcare enterprise. Facility list and details are available through a web service. This web service will be used to construct the JSR-286-comliant Portlet that provides a user view into the facilities and facility details. This Portlet will be deployed to the Sun FOSS Web Space Server 10 Portal.
Previous documents in this series, “GlassFish ESB v 2.1 Creating a Healthcare Facility Web Service Provider” and “NetBeans 6.5.1 and GlassFish v 2.1 – Creating a Healthcare Facility Visual Web Application”, walked the reader through the process of implementing a GlassFish ESB v2.1-based web service which returns facility list and facility details, and a Visual Web JSF Web Application which used that Web Service to display facility list and details.
In this document I will walk through the process of developing a JSR-286-compliant Visual Web JSF Portlet, deployed to the Sun Web Space Server 10 Portal, which will use the Web Service as a data provider. We will use the NetBeans 6.5.1 IDE, which comes as part of the GlassFish ESB v2.1 installation, the Portal Pack 3.0.1 NetBeans Plugin and the JSF Portal Bridge infrastructure provided by the Web Space Server 10. The Portlet will be implemented as a Visual Web JavaServer Faces Portlet using JSF components provided by Project Woodstock. The Portlet will introduce the technology in a practical manner and will show how a web service can be used as a data provider, decoupling the web application from the data stores and specifics of data provision.
Note that this document is not a tutorial on JavaServer Faces, Visual Web JSF, Project Woodstock components or Portlet development. Note also that all the components and technologies used are either distributed as part of the NetBeans 6.5, as part of the GalssFish ESB v2.1, as part of the Web Space Server 10 or are readily pluggable into the NetBeans IDE. All are free and open source.
Here is the document: 01_FacilityService_WebSpacePortlet.pdf
