A proxy server is an intermediary that sits between the client and the server. The client will send the requests to the proxy server instead of the server and is the proxy server's responsibility to forward the request to the intended server. Since the proxy has access to the messages being passed to and from the service, other services may be intergated with the proxy, making the proxy a service gateway. JaxView can be used in this way to provide important policy and security services in a SOA environment.
JaxView can be installed and configured as a proxy, intermediary, or service gateway for Web services in the SOA environment. This deployment option enables a variety of runtime governance and security service capabilities.
When used as a proxy, Web service requests can be directed to the JaxView server instead of to the final service endpoints. The information for the deployed Web services can be entered into JaxView. JaxView maps the original service endpoint to a client message and forward the service request to the applicable endpoint. In this way, JaxView is used to virtualize the Web services environment, making it a central entry point for the services. It is in this configuration that JaxView has the greatest capabilities in monitoring and managing services in runtime.
When JaxView is installed as a proxy server, and the actual service location may be of the form:
http://myService:2222/myService
When JaxView is used as a proxy server to virtualize the service, the client would then send its request for the service to an address of the form:
http://jaxViewserver:9595/myService
JaxView then will forward the request to myService endpoint. Also if the client makes the call to retrieve the service definition such as:
http://jaxViewserver:9595/myService?wsdl
JaxView will retrieve the myService WSDL file and replaces the service location attribute in the WSDL with the virtualized location. In this example it would replace http://myService:2222/myService with http://jaxViewserver:9595/myservice before sending the WSDL to the client. This is known as Service Virtualization since as far as the client is concerned JaxView is the Web service location.
In addition to service virtualization, using JaxView as a proxy enables a versatile array of service governance options. JaxView can access the content of incoming service requests and can block or redirect messages based on user-defined rules. In this way, JaxView can become an XML firewall. This also enables JaxView to enforce a variety of other policies including authentication of clients and usage limits. See the section SOA Policy Enforcement with JaxView for more information.