Chapter 18. Overview of Protocols Used by XTS

This section discusses fundamental concepts associated with the WS-Coordination, WS-Atomic Transaction and WS-Business Activity protocols, as defined in each protocol's specification. Foundational information about these protocols is important to understanding the remaining material covered in this guide.

Note

If you are familiar with the WS-Coordination, WS-Atomic Transaction, and WS-Business Activity specifications you may only need to skim this chapter.

18.1. WS-Coordination

In general terms, coordination is the act of one entity,known as the coordinator, disseminating information to a number of participants for some domain-specific reason. This reason could be to reach consensus on a decision by a distributed transaction protocol, or to guarantee that all participants obtain a specific message, such as in a reliable multicast environment. When parties are being coordinated, information, known as the coordination context, is propagated to tie together operations which are logically part of the same coordinated work or activity. This context information may flow with normal application messages, or may be an explicit part of a message exchange. It is specific to the type of coordination being performed.
The fundamental idea underpinning WS-Coordination (WS-C) is that a coordination infrastructure is needed in a Web Services environment. The WS-C specification defines a framework that allows different coordination protocols to be plugged in to coordinate work between clients, services, and participants, as shown in Figure 18.1, “WS-C Architecture”.
WS-C Architecture

Figure 18.1. WS-C Architecture

Whatever coordination protocol is used, and in whatever domain it is deployed, the same generic requirements are present.

Generic Requirements for WS-C

  • Instantiation, or activation, of a new coordinator for the specific coordination protocol, for a particular application instance.
  • Registration of participants with the coordinator, such that they will receive that coordinator’s protocol messages during (some part of) the application’s lifetime.
  • Propagation of contextual information between Web Services that comprise the application.
  • An entity to drive the coordination protocol through to completion.
The first three of the points in Generic Requirements for WS-C are the direct responsibility of WS-C, while the fourth is the responsibility of a third-party entity. The third-party entity is usually the client component of the overall application. These four WS-C roles and their relationships are shown in Figure 18.2, “Four Roles in WS-C”.
Four Roles in WS-C

Figure 18.2. Four Roles in WS-C

18.1.1. Activation

The WS-C framework exposes an Activation Service which supports the creation of coordinators for specific coordination protocols and retrieval of associated contexts. Activation services are invoked synchronously using an RPC style exchange. So, the service WSDL defines a single port declaring a CreateCoordinationContext operation. This operation takes an input specifying the details of the transaction to be created, including the type of coordination required, timeout, and other relevant information. It returns an output containing the details of the newly-created transaction context: the transaction identifier, coordination type, and registration service URL.

Example 18.1. 

<!-- Activation Service portType Declaration --> 
<wsdl:portType name="ActivationCoordinatorPortType"> 
  <wsdl:operation name="CreateCoordinationContext"> 
    <wsdl:input message="wscoor:CreateCoordinationContext"/> 
    <wsdl:output message="wscoor:CreateCoordinationContextResponse"/> 
  </wsdl:operation> 
</wsdl:portType> 

Note

The 1.0 Activation Coordinator service employs an asynchronous message exchange comprised of two one-way messages, so an Activation Requester service is also necessary.

18.1.2. Registration

The context returned by the activation service includes the URL of a Registration Service. When a web service receives a service request accompanied by a transaction context, it contacts the Registration Service to enroll as a participant in the transaction. The registration request includes a participant protocol defining the role the web service wishes to take in the transaction. Depending upon the coordination protocol, more than one choice of participant protocol may be available.
Like the activation service, the registration service assumes synchronous communication. Thus, the service WSDL exposes a single port declaring a Register operation. This operation takes an input specifying the details of the participant which is to be registered, including the participant protocol type. It returns a corresponding output response.

Example 18.2. Registration ServiceWSDL Interface

<!-- Registration Service portType Declaration --> 
<wsdl:portType name="RegistrationCoordinatorPortType"> 
  <wsdl:operation name="Register"> 
    <wsdl:input message="wscoor:Register"/> 
    <wsdl:output message="wscoor:RegisterResponse"/> 
  </wsdl:operation> 
</wsdl:portType> 
Once a participant is registered with a coordinator through the registration service, it receives coordination messages from the coordinator. Typical messages include such things as “prepare to complete” and “complete” messages, if a two-phase protocol is used. Where the coordinator’s protocol supports it, participants can also send messages back to the coordinator.

Note

The 1.0 Registration Coordinator service employs an asynchronous message exchange comprised of two one way messages, so a Registration Requester service is also necessary

18.1.3. Completion

The role of terminator is generally filled by the client application. At an appropriate point, the client asks the coordinator to perform its particular coordination function with any registered participants, to drive the protocol through to its completion. After completion, the client application may be informed of an outcome for the activity. This outcome may take any form along the spectrum from simple success or failure notification, to complex structured data detailing the activity’s status.