Generating new invocable composite network services based on multiple other invocable constituent network services

• US 7,734,515 B1
• Filed: 08/17/2005
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: McCann, James R. III, Kakulapati, Gunavardhan, Frederick, Robert, Agrawal, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Amee A
• Application Number:
  US11/207,178
• Time in Patent Office: 1,756 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/462 Lookup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Techniques are described for assisting users in dynamically creating and using composite services that are based on other constituent services. In some situations, each constituent service is a Web service (“WS”), and each composite service is a new WS whose execution involves dynamically invoking multiple specified constituent WSes in a specified manner. Such techniques may be used, for example, in conjunction with an electronic WS marketplace via which third-party WS providers make their WSes available to third-party WS consumers who locate and purchase access to those WSes, such as to allow a user to dynamically create a new composite WS that is based on one or more WSes available from other WS providers and that reflects any constraints of the WS marketplace, with the composite WS available for use by other WS consumers. This abstract is not intended for use in interpreting or limiting the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for assisting users in generating new invocable composite network services that are based on multiple other invocable constituent network services, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a group of defined representation types for use in describing input and output parameters of network services, each of the defined representation types indicating a data type and corresponding to a distinct type of information;

for each input and output parameter of a plurality of registered network services, associating one of the defined representation types with the parameter so as to indicate that values of that parameter are of the indicated data type for that one defined representation type and represent the type of information to which that one defined representation type corresponds, each of the registered network services being provided by a provider and having been registered as being available for use by others based on information received from a representative of the provider; and

for each of multiple new invocable composite network services, creating the new composite network service by,

receiving one or more indications from a user of multiple of the registered network services to be used as constituent network services for the new composite network service;

automatically determining suggested inter-relationships between multiple of the indicated network services when used as the constituent network services of the new composite network service, the automatic determining being based at least in part on matching the defined representation types associated with input and output parameters of the indicated network services and being performed by one or more programmed computing systems;

determining additional information to use in providing the new composite network service to others, the additional information including one or more determined use prices for use of the new composite network service, one or more determined use conditions to restrict use of the new composite network service, and one or more determined interface descriptions that each specify one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service; and

registering the new composite network service as being available for use by others based on the determined additional information and the determined suggested inter-relationships, such that providing the new composite network service to another user will be performed in a manner that reflects the determined additional information and that includes automatically invoking the multiple indicated network services in accordance with determined inter-relationships that are based at least in part on the determined suggested inter-relationships.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the registering of the new composite network services as being available for use by others includes making the new composite network services available to customers of an electronic marketplace, wherein the one or more programmed computing systems are associated with the electronic marketplace, and wherein the method further comprises, after receiving a request from one of the customers to provide one of the new composite network services,

determining that payment is available for at least one of the determined use prices for the one composite network service and that at least one of the determined use conditions for the one composite network service have been satisfied;

and

invoking the constituent network services for the one composite network service in accordance with the determined inter-relationships for the one composite network service, the invoking including using one or more input values received in the request for one or more input parameters specified in one of the determined interface descriptions for the one composite network service.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the determined additional information to use in providing the one composite network service to others includes indicated processing to be performed to generate response information for the one composite network service, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving response information from the invoking of the constituent network services for the one composite network service;

performing the processing on the received response information to generate the response information for the one composite network service; and

providing the generated response information to the customer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the plurality of registered network services, each associating of a defined representation type with an input or output parameter of that network service is based at least in part on an indication of that defined representation type included in the information received from the representative of the provider of that network service while that representative is registering that network service.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein, for each of the at least some plurality of registered network services, the information received from the representative of the provider of that network service while that representative is registering that network service includes at least one specified use price for use of that network service by others and at least one specified use condition that restricts use of that network service by others.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining of the additional information to use in providing each of at least some of the new composite network services to others includes automatically determining one or more suggested use prices for the composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use prices for the constituent network services of the composite network service, and automatically determining one or more suggested use conditions for the composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use conditions for the constituent network services of the composite network service.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein, for each of the at least some new composite network services, the one or more determined use prices for the composite network service are the automatically determined suggested use prices for the composite network service, and the one or more determined use conditions for the composite network service are the automatically determined suggested use conditions for the composite network service.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising, for each of the at least some new composite network services, providing indications to the user who indicated the constituent network services for that composite network service, the indications including the automatically determined suggested use prices for that composite network service and the automatically determined suggested use conditions for that composite network service, and wherein the one or more determined use prices for that composite network service and the one or more determined use conditions for that composite network service are based on indications received from the user after the providing of the indications.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the creating of the composite network service includes providing information to the user who indicated the constituent network services for the composite network service, the provided information including one or more indications of the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships between those constituent network services, and receiving from the user one or more indications of the determined inter-relationships between those constituent network services for use in providing the composite network service, the indicated determined inter-relationships being based at least in part on the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the determined inter-relationships between constituent network services of a composite network service include one or more mappings that are each from an output parameter of one of the constituent network services to an input parameter of another of the constituent network services.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the automatic determining of the suggested inter-relationships between the constituent network services for the composite network service is further based at least in part on prior actions of users when creating other composite network services that use at least some of the constituent network services.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the creating of the composite network service includes performing iterative interactions with a user to identify the one or more determined use prices for the composite network service, the one or more determined use conditions for the composite network service, the one or more determined interface descriptions for the composite network service, and the determined inter-relationships between the constituent network services of the composite network service that are based at least in part on the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships for the composite network service.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the input and output parameters of the plurality of registered network services, the associating of one of the defined representation types with the parameter is based at least in part on prior actions of users involving associating the one defined representation type with parameters of other registered network services.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the input and output parameters of the plurality of registered network services, the associating of one of the defined representation types with the parameter is performed automatically based at least in part on received information related to the parameter.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatic associating of one of the defined representation types with a parameter of a network service is performed as part of registering the network service.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the received information related to a parameter of a registered network service that is used to automatically associate one of the defined representation types with the parameter includes an interface description for the network service that identifies the one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the network service.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the network service is a Web service, and wherein the interface description for the network service is a Web Services Description Language (“

WSDL”

) document.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the received information related to a parameter of a registered network service that is used to automatically associate one of the defined representation types with the parameter includes a data type of the parameter and a name of the parameter.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated by a user to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service are identified from search results provided to the user, the search results being based on search criteria provided by the user regarding network services of interest.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the search criteria provided by a user include one or more defined representation types that are associated with one or more parameters of the network services of interest.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated by a user to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service are identified based at least in part on prior actions of users when creating other composite network services that use at least some of the constituent network services.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of registered network services are registered at an electronic marketplace as being available for use by customers of the electronic marketplace, and wherein the registering of the new composite network services as being available for use by others includes making the registered new composite network services available to customers of the electronic marketplace.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the registering of the new composite network services as being available for use by others includes making the registered new composite network services available to customers of a first electronic marketplace, and wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, at least one of the multiple registered network services indicated by a user to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service is registered at another electronic marketplace that is unaffiliated with the first electronic marketplace.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising registering each of multiple network services as being available for use by others based on information received from a representative of a provider of the network service, the registering including receiving an indication from the representative that a parameter of the network service has values that represent a type of information distinct from the types of information to which the provided group of defined representation types correspond, defining a new representation type for the provided group that corresponds to the distinct type of information, and associating the new defined representation type with the parameter.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed by the one or more programmed computing systems on behalf of an organization, and wherein at least some of the defined representation types of the group are provided by the organization before the registering of network services of others.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the automatic invoking of the multiple indicated network services for the composite network service includes obtaining one or more output values from an output parameter of one of the indicated network services using a first protocol that is based on the one indicated network service and automatically supplying each of the obtained output values as an input value to an input parameter of another of the indicated network services using a distinct second protocol that is based on the another indicated network service.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the automatic invoking of the multiple indicated network services for the composite network service includes obtaining one or more output values from an output parameter of one of the indicated network services and automatically modifying each of the obtained output values before supplying the modified value as an input value to an input parameter of another of the indicated network services, the automatic modifying based at least in part on a type of value used by the input parameter.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the determining of an interface description that specifies one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service is dynamically performed based at least in part on receiving one or more indications from a user of one or more input parameters for the composite network service that are distinct from the input parameters for the constituent network services of the composite network service, the input and output parameters specified by the determined interface description including the indicated input parameters.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising, after receiving the one or more indications from a user of the one or more input parameters for a composite network service, determining an association between each of the indicated input parameters and one or more of the input parameters of the constituent network services for the composite network service such that a value received for one of the indicated input parameters will be used to provide input to the one or more associated input parameters of those constituent network services.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the determining of the association between the indicated input parameters and the input parameters of the constituent network services for the composite network service is performed in such a manner that at least one of the input parameters of a constituent network service does not have any associated other parameters from which to receive values for use as input to that constituent network service.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising, for each of the at least one constituent network service input parameters that does not have any associated other parameters, receiving one or more indications from a user of information to be used as an input value for that constituent network service input parameter.

32. The method of claim 28 wherein the receiving of the indications from a user of the one or more distinct input parameters for each of at least some of the composite network services includes receiving indications of names for the one or more input parameters that are distinct from names of the input parameters for the constituent network services of the composite network service.

33. The method of claim 28 wherein the receiving of the indications from a user of the one or more distinct input parameters for each of at least some of the composite network services that are distinct from the input parameters for the constituent network services of the composite network service is performed to obfuscate one or more of the constituent network services from others who use the composite network service.

34. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed by the one or more programmed computing systems on behalf of an organization in such a manner that the registered new composite network services are available from the organization for use by others, and wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the one or more input and output parameters of each of the one or more determined interface descriptions for the composite network service include at least one input parameter that is automatically added on behalf of the organization for use by the organization in providing the composite network service.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the method is performed by the one or more programmed computing systems on behalf of an organization in such a manner that the registered new composite network services are available from the organization for use by others, and wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the one or more input and output parameters of each of the one or more determined interface descriptions for the composite network service include at least one output parameter that is automatically added on behalf of the organization for use by the organization in providing the composite network service.

36. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the additional information determined to use in providing the composite network service to others includes information provided by a user for use in generating response information for the composite network service.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the provided information for each of at least some of the composite network services includes indications of processing to be performed on information received from invoking one or more of the constituent network services of the composite network service in order to generate the response information for the composite network service.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein the provided information for each of at least some of the composite network services includes an eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (“

XSLT”

) document for use in generating the response information for the composite network service.

39. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the registering of the composite network service as being available for use by others includes automatically providing multiple distinct interfaces for use by others in accessing the composite network service.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein, for each of the at least some composite network services, the multiple distinct interfaces are based on use of multiple distinct communication protocols.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the multiple distinct interfaces include at least one interface that uses Simple Object Access Protocol (“

SOAP”

) messages for information being exchanged and at least one interface that uses documents for information being exchanged that are based on eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) and that are sent using HyperText Transport Protocol (“

HTTP”

).

42. The method of claim 39 wherein, for each of the at least some composite network services, the multiple distinct interfaces are based on use of multiple distinct input data formats.

43. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services registered as being available for use by others, the one or more determined use conditions for the new composite network service include one or more indications of access rights that restrict the others to whom the new composite network service is available.

44. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services registered as being available for use by others, the one or more determined use conditions for the new composite network service include one or more indications of access quotas that restrict availability of the composite network service.

45. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the determined additional information to use in providing the composite network service to others includes logic specified by a user for use during the providing of the composite network service, such that the specified logic when executed dynamically selects one or more constituent network services to be invoked in a specified order for operation of the composite network service.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the specified logic for each of one or more of the at least some composite network services includes an eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (“

XSLT”

) document.

47. The method of claim 45 wherein the specified logic for each of one or more of the at least some composite network services includes an eXtensible Markup Language (“

XML”

) document.

48. The method of claim 45 wherein executing of the specified logic for each of one or more of the at least some composite network services includes using XML Path Language (“

XPath”

).

49. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service are provided by multiple distinct providers.

50. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated by a user to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service are provided by one or more providers unaffiliated with the user.

51. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed by the one or more programmed computing systems on behalf of an organization, and wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the composite network service is a new dynamically created Web service that is available to be invoked by others from a computer of the organization.

52. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated to be used as constituent network services for the new composite network service include at least one other composite network service previously created by another user.

53. A computer-readable medium whose contents configure a computing device to assist users in generating new invocable composite network services that are based on multiple other invocable constituent network services, by performing a method comprising:

providing a group of defined representation types for use in describing input and output parameters of network services, each of the defined representation types indicating a data type for a type of information;

for each of multiple input and output parameters of a plurality of registered network services, associating one of the defined representation types with the parameter to indicate that values of that parameter are of the indicated data type for that one defined representation type, each of the registered network services being provided by a provider and having been registered as being available for use by others; and

for each of multiple new invocable composite network services, creating the new composite network service by,

receiving one or more indications from a user of multiple of the registered network services to be used as constituent network services for the new composite network service;

automatically determining suggested inter-relationships between multiple of the indicated network services as the constituent network services of the new composite network service, the determining being based at least in part on matching the defined representation types associated with input and output parameters of the indicated network services;

determining additional information to use in providing the new composite network service to others, the additional information including one or more determined use prices for use of the new composite network service, one or more determined use conditions to restrict use of the new composite network service, and one or more determined interface descriptions that each specify one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service; and

registering the new composite network service as being available for use by others based on the determined additional information and the determined suggested inter-relationships, the registering enabling the new composite network service to be provided to another user based on the determined additional information, providing of the composite network service including automatically invoking the multiple indicated network services in accordance with determined inter-relationships that are based at least in part on the determined suggested inter-relationships.

54. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein the registering of the new composite network services as being available for use by others includes making the new composite network services available to customers of an electronic marketplace, wherein the configured computing device is associated with the electronic marketplace, and wherein the method further comprises, after receiving a request from one of the customers to provide one of the new composite network services,

determining that payment is available for at least one of the determined use prices for the one composite network service and that at least one of the determined use conditions for the one composite network service have been satisfied;

and

invoking the constituent network services for the one composite network service in accordance with the determined inter-relationships for the one composite network service, the invoking including using one or more input values received in the request for one or more input parameters specified in one of the determined interface descriptions for the one composite network service.

55. The computer-readable medium of claim 54 wherein the determined additional information to use in providing the one composite network service to others includes indicated processing to be performed to generate response information for the one composite network service, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving response information from the invoking of the constituent network services for the one composite network service;

performing the processing on the received response information to generate the response information for the one composite network service; and

providing the generated response information to the customer.

56. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the plurality of registered network services, each associating of a defined representation type with an input or output parameter of that network service is based at least in part on an indication of that defined representation type included in information received from a representative of the provider of that network service.

57. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein the determining of the additional information to use in providing each of at least some of the new composite network services to others includes automatically determining one or more suggested use prices for the composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use prices for the constituent network services of the composite network service, and automatically determining one or more suggested use conditions for the composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use conditions for the constituent network services of the composite network service.

58. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the creating of the composite network service includes providing information to the user who indicated the constituent network services for the composite network service, the provided information including one or more indications of the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships between those constituent network services, and receiving from the user one or more indications of the determined inter-relationships between those constituent network services for use in providing the composite network service, the indicated determined inter-relationships being based at least in part on the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships.

59. The computer-readable medium of claim 58 wherein the determined inter-relationships between constituent network services of a composite network service include one or more mappings that are each from an output parameter of one of the constituent network services to an input parameter of another of the constituent network services.

60. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the creating of the composite network service includes performing iterative interactions with a user to identify the one or more determined use prices for the composite network service, the one or more determined use conditions for the composite network service, the one or more determined interface descriptions for the composite network service, and the determined inter-relationships between the constituent network services of the composite network service that are based at least in part on the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships for the composite network service.

61. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the multiple input and output parameters of the plurality of registered network services, the associating of one of the defined representation types with the parameter is performed automatically based at least in part on received information related to the parameter.

62. The computer-readable medium of claim 61 wherein the automatic associating of one of the defined representation types with a parameter of a network service is performed as part of registering the network service and includes using a received interface description for the network service that identifies input and output parameters for use in accessing the network service, wherein the network service is a Web service, and wherein the interface description for the network service is a Web Services Description Language (“

WSDL”

) document.

63. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the multiple registered network services indicated by a user to be used as constituent network services for the composite network service are identified from at least one of search results provided to the user that are based on search criteria provided by the user regarding network services of interest, and of prior actions of users when creating other composite network services that use at least some of the constituent network services.

64. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 further comprising registering each of multiple network services as being available for use by others based on information received from a representative of a provider of the network service, the registering including receiving an indication from the representative that a parameter of the network service has values that represent a type of information distinct from the types of information to which the provided group of defined representation types correspond, defining a new representation type for the provided group that corresponds to the distinct type of information, and associating the new defined representation type with the parameter.

65. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein the method further comprises, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, dynamically determining an interface description that specifies one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service based at least in part on receiving one or more indications from a user of one or more input parameters for the composite network service that are distinct from the input parameters for the constituent network services of the composite network service, the input and output parameters specified by the determined interface description including the indicated input parameters.

66. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein, for each of at least some of the new composite network services, the registering of the composite network service as being available for use by others includes automatically providing multiple distinct interfaces for use by others in accessing the composite network service.

67. The computer-readable medium of claim 53 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing device that stores the contents, and wherein the contents are instructions that when executed program the computing device to perform the method.

68. A computing device configured to assist users in generating new invocable composite network services that are based on multiple other invocable constituent network services, comprising:

one or more processors;

a first component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, create a new composite network service for a user by;

providing a group of defined representation types for use in describing input and output parameters of network services, each of the defined representation types corresponding to a distinct type of information;

for each of multiple input and output parameters of a plurality of registered network services, associating one of the defined representation types with the parameter to indicate that values of that parameter represent the type of information to which that one defined representation type corresponds, each of the registered network services being provided by a provider and having been registered as being available for use by others;

receiving one or more indications from the user of multiple of the registered network services to be used as constituent network services for the new composite network service;

automatically determining suggested inter-relationships between multiple of the indicated network services as the constituent network services of the new composite network service, the determining being based at least in part on matching the defined representation types associated with input and output parameters of the indicated network services;

determining additional information to use in providing the new composite network service to others, the additional information including one or more determined use prices for use of the new composite network service, one or more determined use conditions to restrict use of the new composite network service, and one or more determined interface descriptions that each specify one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service; and

registering the new composite network service as being available for use by others based on the determined additional information and the determined suggested inter-relationships, the registering enabling the new composite network service to be provided to another user based on the determined additional information, providing of the composite network service including automatically invoking the multiple indicated network services in accordance with determined inter-relationships that are based at least in part on the determined suggested inter-relationships.

69. The computing device of claim 68 further comprising a second component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and in response to a request from a second user for the created new composite network service, providing the created new composite network service to the second user by automatically invoking the multiple indicated network services that are the constituent network services for the created new composite network service on behalf of the second user, the invoking performed in accordance with the determined inter-relationships for the created new composite network service.

70. The computing device of claim 69 wherein the registering of the new composite network service as being available for use by others includes making the new composite network service available to customers of an electronic marketplace, wherein the computing device is associated with the electronic marketplace, wherein the second component is further configured to determine that payment is available from the second user for at least one of the determined use prices for the created composite network service and that at least one of the determined use conditions for the created composite network service have been satisfied for providing the created composite network service to the second user, and wherein the invoking of the multiple indicated network services that are the constituent network services for the created new composite network service on behalf of the second user includes using one or more input values received in a request from the second user for one or more input parameters specified in one of the determined interface descriptions for the created composite network service.

71. The computing device of claim 70 wherein the determined additional information to use in providing the created composite network service to others includes indicated processing to be performed to generate response information for the created composite network service, and wherein the invoking of the multiple indicated network services that are the constituent network services for the created new composite network service on behalf of the second user further includes:

receiving response information from the invoking of the constituent network services for the created composite network service;

performing the processing on the received response information to generate the response information for the created composite network service; and

providing the generated response information to the second user.

72. The computing device of claim 68 wherein, for each of at least some of the plurality of registered network services, each associating of a defined representation type with an input or output parameter of that network service is based at least in part on an indication of that defined representation type included in information received from a representative of the provider of that network service.

73. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the determining of the additional information to use in providing the created new composite network services to others includes automatically determining one or more suggested use prices for the created new composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use prices for the constituent network services of the created new composite network service, and automatically determining one or more suggested use conditions for the created new composite network service that are based at least in part on specified use conditions for the constituent network services of the created new composite network service.

74. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the creating of the new composite network service further includes providing information to the user that includes one or more indications of the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships between those constituent network services, and receiving from the user one or more indications of the determined inter-relationships between those constituent network services for use in providing the new composite network service, the indicated determined inter-relationships being based at least in part on the automatically determined suggested inter-relationships.

75. The computing device of claim 74 wherein the determined inter-relationships between constituent network services of the created new composite network service include one or more mappings that are each from an output parameter of one of the constituent network services to an input parameter of another of the constituent network services.

76. The computing device of claim 68 wherein, for each of at least some of the multiple input and output parameters of the plurality of registered network services, the associating of one of the defined representation types with the parameter is performed automatically based at least in part on received information related to the parameter.

77. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the multiple registered network services indicated by the user to be used as constituent network services for the created new composite network service are identified from at least one of search results provided to the user, and of prior actions of other users when creating other composite network services that use at least some of the constituent network services.

78. The computing device of claim 68 further comprising registering each of multiple network services as being available for use by others based on information received from a representative of a provider of the network service, the registering including receiving an indication from the representative that a parameter of the network service has values that represent a type of information distinct from the types of information to which the provided group of defined representation types correspond, defining a new representation type for the provided group that corresponds to the distinct type of information, and associating the new defined representation type with the parameter.

79. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the creating of the new composite network service further includes dynamically determining an interface description that specifies one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the created new composite network service based at least in part on receiving one or more indications from the user of one or more input parameters for the created new composite network service that are distinct from the input parameters for the constituent network services of the created new composite network service, the input and output parameters specified by the determined interface description including the indicated input parameters.

80. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the registering of the created new composite network service as being available for use by others includes automatically providing multiple distinct interfaces for use by others in accessing the created new composite network service.

81. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the first component and the second component each include software instructions for execution by the one or more processors.

82. The computing device of claim 68 wherein the first component consists of a means for creating a new composite network service for a user by:

providing a group of defined representation types for use in describing input and output parameters of network services, each of the defined representation types corresponding to a distinct type of information;

for each of multiple input and output parameters of a plurality of registered network services, associating one of the defined representation types with the parameter to indicate that values of that parameter represent the type of information to which that one defined representation type corresponds, each of the registered network services being provided by a provider and having been registered as being available for use by others;

receiving one or more indications from the user of multiple of the registered network services to be used as constituent network services for the new composite network service;

automatically determining suggested inter-relationships between multiple of the indicated network services as the constituent network services of the new composite network service, the determining being based at least in part on matching the defined representation types associated with input and output parameters of the indicated network services;

determining additional information to use in providing the new composite network service to others, the additional information including one or more determined use prices for use of the new composite network service, one or more determined use conditions to restrict use of the new composite network service, and one or more determined interface descriptions that each specify one or more input and output parameters for use in accessing the new composite network service; and

registering the new composite network service as being available for use by others based on the determined additional information and the determined suggested inter-relationships, the registering enabling the new composite network service to be provided to another user based on the determined additional information, providing of the composite network service including automatically invoking the multiple indicated network services in accordance with determined inter-relationships that are based at least in part on the determined suggested inter-relationships.