XML technologies for RESTful services development

Abstract

For the last several decades the predominant architectural style for the implementation of data-centric applications has had a relational database at the core, procedural code implementing the application services and an object-oriented API. More recently the API has transitioned, via a slight detour through SOAP-based web services, to a RESTful style, however what lies beneath that interface has been slower to take a new approach. In this paper we argue that upgrading that which is under the covers to an XML-centric technology stack will result in a system that is easier to build, test and maintain. Further, these technologies are a step toward making construction of such systems available to non-programmers. We present an XML RESTful Services framework that provides mechanisms to address all of the key aspects of systems built in the RESTful architectural style.