wrapping web service without change of endpoint and wsdl

[sjm2000]

Dear All,

Currently we expose our webservice which connects to backend database like the diagram below

We would like to change the architecture with apigee Edge on premise like below . The use cause is for we use apigee on premise for this particular scenario for analytics mostly. Secondly main reason is i do not want all the consumers to change the end point/wsdl path, for accessing the webservice. However please note we do not have Baas installed and web service might require to work as-is for database connections. Is it feasible? 🙂 Regards

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Sujith Mathew,

Couple of questions:

1. How the DB is exposed ?

2. How the WebService would talk to the Apigee Edge ?

By looking at the proposed architecture, I feel it is possible to develop an Apigee Proxy which would basically talk with the northbound WebService and integrate with the SoundBound DB.

But to do so, we need to understand in detail the answer of two questions I raised. If we know how the Northbound interface would look like, what would be the security considerations, quota, throttling, cache etc, then we can design the NorthBound part of the API Proxy.

Additionally, if we know how the DB is exposed for the API to consume, then we can try to set this DB node as an target server (provided it is possible, where in the DB is also exposing a well defined format to interact with, a lister IP and port and a DB service, which would work on the request and send a response).

In this way, we should be able to abstract the DB from the Web Service.

Hope this helps.!

[sjm2000]

@MEGHDEEP BASU

Here are my answers 🙂

1. How the DB is exposed ? --> exposed via proprietary protocol of SAP. Hence its connected via "SAP Java Connector" provided by SAP.

2. How the Web Service would talk to the Apigee Edge ? --> I was presuming wrapping the web service via intranet , using apigee edge on premise , would do. But never tried.

what would be the security considerations, quota, throttling, cache etc, then we can design the NorthBound part of the API Proxy. --> For this partificular webservice i am not concerned about any of these parameters.

[#4]

@Sujith Mathew,

I think, we should be able to create an API proxy which would provide the resources to the WebService for it to consume. At the same time, connect to the SAP backend as Target Server.

[sjm2000]

Excellent , i will try it out and let you know the results in a week.

[#6]

Will you be using Apigee solely for analytics? I think you should make use of features like quota, throttling, caching and etc if you are introducing Apigee into the landscape.

What do you mean by "Secondly main reason is i do not want all the consumers to change the end point/wsdl path, for accessing the webservice."

If you intend to abstract the backend wsdl/path - then yes, you can achieve that by exposing the Apigee proxy endpoint to your consumers.

[sjm2000]

@Shree Rangan

Yes we are using Apigee for whole lot of purposes except for this webservice. We cannot ask the consumers of the webservice to change the wsdl or end point.

Can you please explain :

"If you intend to abstract the backend wsdl/path - then yes, you can achieve that by exposing the Apigee proxy endpoint to your consumers."

Regards

Sujith Mathew

[#8]

Hi Sujith,

What i meant was that you could probably expose a REST based service on Apigee and then transform to a SOAP based web service (as i had assumed that your DB was a SOAP service).

In this specific case i think you could have the web-service consume a REST based API on Apigee which then interacts with the DB (will have to figure out how this can be achieved- as the DB uses a java connector). That way the consumers are abstracted from the underlying DB integration and will not be impacted if/when you move the DB to be a service/file/noSQL etc.

[rosie6899]

I did not have an idea that there is website wrapping is also happening to renovate it. Actually, I am a vehicle wrapper delivering vehicle wrapping services in hanford and did not have an idea about the website wrapping. By the way, I will do deeply research why we need website wrapping.