Java™ Web Services Unleashed

Global Models

Up until now you've been dealing with the problem of specifying the behavior of a single Web service, either in executable form (private flow) or as a public contract (public flow). In practice, every transaction involves at least two parties, each of which can be characterized in general as a Web service. Complex transactions can typically involve three and more participants directly interacting with each other. Using the flow model described in the previous sections, you can represent the behavior of each one of the parties involved in a transaction. This, however, is not enough to fully specify how the interaction is carried out. What is still missing is a specification of the way in which all these parties need to interact to ...