I can think of three reasons for the complete lack of response to the question of "what exactly are 'SOA services'?"
1. The question is viewed as a troll. As mentioned, my question is an honest one and is not intended to bait anyone. 2. The answer is readily available with simple searches such that I'm viewed as lazy for asking. 3. The answer is not readily available nor one that is universally agreed to, so noone wants to risk posting an answer for fear of, um, well I don't know. Michael's statement below, "WS has only some things in common with SOA Services", simply begs the question of what are the common things and what are the differences? (I'm assuming WS in this context means web services, not WebSphere--Michael please correct me if I'm wrong. Though if it means WebSphere, the quote really doesn't make sense to me!) In the loosest definition of a service, a facility that is "invoked" by dropping off a file in a particular directory and puts any possible reply (reply may not be necessary, depending on the details of the service) in another directory would qualify as a service. While such a service isn't appealling in many ways, it would still fit the notion of a service within a service-oriented environment (SOA being technology agnostic and all). In a more strict definition, only facilities that have an explicit (possibly machine readable) contract, is dynamically discoverable, exposes a business-level function and exchanges documents (as opposed to RPC-style) would fit. It is unclear to me, without elaboration, of why "WS has only some things in common with SOA Services." I submit that just about any definition of "SOA Service" will be viewed as too constraining by some and too loose by others. -Rob > Services --- In [email protected], "Rob Eamon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hmm. What exactly are "SOA Services"? (Honest question.) > > -Rob >
