1. Understanding WebLogic Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server
  2. Introducing Oracle WebLogic Web Services

1 Introducing Oracle WebLogic Web Services

WebLogic Web services for Oracle WebLogic Server are loosely coupled, distributed environments that allow you to integrate heterogeneous applications within the enterprise or to expose business functions to customers and partners over the Internet. These services are characterized by the business functionality, the website which exposes that functionality, and the set of published interfaces necessary to use the exposed functionality.

For definitions of unfamiliar terms found in this and other books, see the Glossary.

Overview of WebLogic Web Services

You can access the Web services using standard Web protocols such as XML or HTTP. WebLogic Server supports the web service types such as Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.3, Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS), and Java API for XML-Based RPC (JAX-RPC) 1.1.

Table 1-1 Types of WebLogic Web Services

Web Service Type Description

Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.3

The JAX-WS implementation in Oracle WebLogic Server is extended from the JAX-WS Reference Implementation (RI) developed by the Glassfish Community (see https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/metro-jax-ws).

For more information about JAX-WS, see:

Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)

WebLogic Server supports Jersey 2.x (JAX-RS 2.1 RI) by default in this release. Registration as a shared library with WebLogic Server is no longer required.

For more information about JAX-RS, see:

Java API for XML-Based RPC (JAX-RPC) 1.1

JAX-RPC is considered legacy and the specification is no longer evolving. JAX-RPC defines APIs and conventions for supporting XML web services in the Java Platform as well support for the WS-I Basic Profile to improve interoperability between JAX-RPC implementations.

For more information about JAX-WS, see:

How Do I Choose Between SOAP and REST?

In WebLogic Server, SOAP web services are implemented using JAX-WS and RESTful web services are implemented using JAX-RS. Follow the recommended guidelines to consider when choosing between SOAP and REST.

See also Features and Standards Supported by WebLogic Web Services for a comparison of the standards that are supported for JAX-WS and JAX-RS.

Table 1-2 How to Choose Between SOAP and RESTful Web Services

Use . . . In the following scenarios . . .

SOAP

Implement SOAP web services using JAX-WS in enterprise application integration scenarios that:

  • Have advanced quality of service (QoS) requirements.

  • Need to call methods remotely in Java components, such as Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) or Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

JAX-WS interoperates with other standards-based SOAP web services from Oracle or other SOAP web service vendors.

JAX-WS supports the full set of WS-* protocols that provide standards for security, reliability, and so on, and better interoperates with other clients and servers that conform to the WS-* protocols.

For more information about SOAP web service development, see Developing JAX-WS Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

REST

Implement RESTful web services using JAX-RS to integrate services over the web when the constraints of the RESTful style are desirable, such as separate client-server architecture, uniform interface, and so on.

For more information about RESTful web services development, see Developing and Securing RESTful Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.