Model-based data engineering for Web services

Abstract

The application of the Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) and Web services enabled a new level of interoperability for heterogeneous IT systems. However, although XML enables separation of data definition and data content, it doesn't ensure that data exchanged are interpreted correctly by the receiving system. This motivates data management to support unambiguous definition of data elements for information exchange. Using a common reference model improves this process leading to Model-based Data Engineering (MBDE). The results can be used immediately to configure mediation layers integrating services into an overall service oriented architecture. Ultimately, the objective must be to describe the information exchange requirements, contexts, and constraints of web services in metadata allowing intelligent agents to conduct these engineering steps without human support. This chapter describes the current state of the art of MBDE and how it relates to Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) in general and Web Services in particular. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.