TECHNIQUES TO PROVIDE PROXIES FOR WEB SERVICES

• US 20130191509A1
• Filed: 01/19/2012
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Banti, Edward, Nalliah, Selvaraj, Rook, Harvey, Loughry, Michael, Dyksen, Elroy, Congdon, Robert, Valegerepura, Kumarswamy, Smirnov, Ilya
• Granted Patent: US 9,547,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

Techniques to provide proxies for web services are described. A technique may include providing proxies for web services that translate one format to a format native used, or understood, by the web service without having to rewrite existing APIs. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may comprise a processing unit and a network interface coupled to the processing unit. The apparatus may further include a web service executing web service requests on the processing unit using a native format. The apparatus may further include a proxy to receive a web service request in a first format via the network interface and to translate the web service request from the first format to the native format. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a web service executing on a web service server, a web service request in a first format from a client;

translating the web service request into a second format native to the web service;

processing the web service request to generate a response in the native format;

translating the response from the native format to the first format; and

providing the response in the first format to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first format is JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

deserializing a JSON request into at least one data type in the native format; and

passing the at least one data type to the web service.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an application program interface (API) to the web service, wherein the API receives requests from and provides responses to a client in a format different from the first format, and wherein the API communicates with the web service using the native format.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing a first access point for requests to the API; and

providing a second access point for requests in the first format.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

translating the web service request in the first format to the format of the API;

processing the web service request from the API to generate a response in the native format; and

translating the response from the native format to the first format.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving the web service request via the API in the first format; and

translating the web service request into the native format.

8. An article comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a system to:

translating a web service request received in a first format into a second format native to a web service;

processing the web service request to generate a response in the native format;

translating the response from the native format to the first format; and

providing the response in the first format to a client.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein the first format is JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and the medium further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

deserialize a JSON request into at least one data type in the native format; and

process the web service request according to the at least one data type.

10. The article of claim 9, the medium further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

provide an application program interface (API) to the web service, wherein the API receives requests from and provides responses to a client in a format different from the first format, and wherein the API communicates with the web service using the native format.

11. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

provide a first access point for requests to the API; and

provide a second access point for requests in the first format.

12. The article of claim 8, the medium further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

translate the web service request in the first format to the format of the API;

process the web service request from the API to generate a response in the native format; and

translate the response from the native format to the first format.

13. The article of claim 8, the medium further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

receive the web service request via the API in the first format; and

translate the web service request into the native format.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing unit;

a network interface coupled to the processing unit;

a web service application executing web service requests on the processing unit using a native format; and

a proxy to receive a web service request in a first format via the network interface and to translate the web service request from the first format to the native format for the web service application to execute, and to translate a response to a web service request from the native format to the first format.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first format is JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and the web service request includes at least one of:

a time zone header and a version header.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

an application program interface (API) to the web service, the API to receive web service requests from, and provide responses to, a client in a format different from the first format, and wherein the API communicates with the web service using the native format.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

a first access point for requests to the API; and

a second access point for requests in the first format.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, the proxy further to translate the web service request in the first format to the format of the API;

and the web service application to process the web service request from the API to generate a response in the native format.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, the API to receive the web service request in JSON format;

and the proxy to translate the web service request into the native format.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising a schema mapping that maps a data type in the first format to a data type in the native format.