Service-oriented Architecture _{Removing the Obstacles to Integrated Justice Data Exchanges}

Web Services

In addition to providing a more efficient and dynamic method for developing, upgrading and implementing software, SOA helps organizations to remove many of the barriers that they faced with traditional interfaces. Because SOA implementations rely on Internet protocols, they can use services that run anywhere, on anyone’s computer.

While SOA provides the structure for enhanced information sharing, Web Services are the means by which it is accomplished. A web service, simply defined, is an application with which other applications can communicate via a network. This communication between applications is accomplished by the use of highly standardized interfaces, created using universally accepted technology such as XML, which are separate from the internal functioning of components. These interfaces give components from different computer systems a “common ground” where information and services can be exchanged.

Most importantly, Web Services facilitate loose coupling between systems. When systems are loosely coupled, it means that they are linked together using system-independent and vendor-independent formats. None of the involved parties need to know anything about the technology utilized by the others, nor do they have to make changes to their own software packages in order to facilitate integration with other systems. Organizations achieve interoperability among systems in a way that is easier to change and accommodate unanticipated applications.

Let’s look at a simple example of how a court system could benefit from SOA and Web Services. Imagine that a local court system helps maintain a publicly accessible information kiosk that supplies information about pending cases, trial dates, etc. Rather than having to enter all of the information manually on location, the courts would like to be able to simply export the information that it already has stored in its case management software. By the use of Web Services, this becomes a possibility. The scheduling component of the court’s case management software can export information through a standardized interface, which is then accepted by the kiosk’s interface and made available in its calendar component.

Even though this is a simple data exchange, it helps the court system save valuable resources. Without it, time would have been wasted on travel and redundant data entry. The best part of all of this, however, is that neither the court system nor the people who maintain the kiosk have to understand the internal workings of the other’s computer software in order to accomplish this exchange.