Conclusion

In this chapter, we have become familiar with the BPEL, its role in the SOA, and basic concepts related with service composition and the definition of business processes. BPEL provides a rich vocabulary for defining processes and has several features not found in programming languages. This makes BPEL the preferred choice for composition of services. Major software vendors on Java and Microsoft platforms support BPEL, and even open‑source implementations exist. Based on the comparison to other technologies and languages, we have seen that BPEL plays important role in service composition.

BPEL fits very well into the SOA, and with BPEL, we can define executable business processes and abstract business processes. Executable processes are the most important and allow us to define the exact order in which services are composed.

Note

To continue reading, you have two choices:

If you are interested in the web services technology stack, which covers WS-Addressing, WS-Security, WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-BusinessActivity, and other specifications, you should continue with Chapter 2.

If you are interested in BPEL only then you should proceed directly to Chapter 3.