Service-oriented architecture is not just changing how we approach application integration, but the mindset of software development as well.

Applications as we know them are becoming a thing of the past. In the future we will increasingly think of services and how those services are assembled to build complete "composite" applications that can be modified easily and quickly to adapt to a continually evolving business environment.

This is the vision of a standards-based service-oriented architecture (SOA), where the IT infrastructure is continuously adapted to keep up with the pace of business change.

Oracle is at the forefront of this vision, with the Oracle SOA Suite providing the most comprehensive, proven, and integrated tool kit for building SOA based applications.

This is no idle boast. Oracle Fusion Applications (the re-implementation of Oracle's EBusiness Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards Enterprise as a single application) is probably the largest composite application being built today and it has the Oracle SOA platform at its core.

Developers and architects using the Oracle SOA Suite, whether working on integration projects, building new bespoke applications, or specializing in large implementations of Oracle Applications will need a book that provides a hands-on guide on how best to
harness and apply this technology. This book will enable them to do just that.

The initial section of the book is aimed at providing the reader with an overview of the Oracle SOA Suite and its various components, followed by a hands on introduction to
each of them. This will provide the reader with a good feel for each of the components and how to use them.

Once the reader is familiar with various pieces of the SOA Suite and what they do, the next question will typically be:

What is the best way to combine/use all of these different components to implement a real world SOA solution?

Answering this question is the goal of the next section. Using a working example of an online auction site (oBay), it leads the reader through key SOA design considerations in
implementing a robust solution that is designed for change. It explores topics such as:

• How to design sustainable service contracts, that is, ones that easily accommodate future change.
• How best to leverage functionality from existing systems when building business services, while still providing flexibility to plug in an alternate service provider at a later point. 
• What is the right way to implement new services.
• When to use rules to implement specialized services for greater flexibility.
• The use of different interaction patterns and when to use each one.
• Strategies for data validation and error handling, whether system errors or business errors.
• Key considerations when implementing "Human Workflow".

Before an application is complete and moves from development into production, it must also meet non-functional criteria such as security, availability, and scalability requirements. The final section addresses these issues and covers considerations such as the packaging, deployment, testing, security, and administration of composite applications as well as the overall deployment of the infrastructure.

Topics addressed include:

• Guidelines on packaging an application for easy deployment and movement from development to the test and production environments.
• Tips on building automated test suites that start at the component level and allow for testing of individual components and the complete assembly.
• Where are the most effective places to apply security and what options are available for securing the system.

[read 'Oracle SOA Suite Developers Guide' Book Extract:
Using Business Rules to Define Decision Points (PDF)]

[purchase 'Oracle SOA Suite Developers Guide']