how much has web-service been used in mule (several times) - web-services

I have a web service (with WSDL) with mule to be used by people.
I want to get some information about users that use my web-service. For example : ip and time-stamp of the API invocation.
Also, I want to know how much has web-service been used in mule?

I don't think there's such statistical information. However, you could add a logger processor to the flow (assuming it's a flow) marking something like "Web Service XXX was called." The logged message would also contain the timestamp, because of the logger formatter.
As to the IP that called the service, Mule places the calling address in the message Inbound property remoteAddress. So, you could just add this line to the flow:
<logger message="Incoming message. Caller Address: #[message.inboundProperties['remoteAddress']]"/>
This would log each access (which could be used for statistical purposes by an analyzing tool) and their respective calling address.

This sounds a good use case for either:
A custom interceptor, that takes care of storing usage statistics,
A wire-tap that sends to a flow in charge of storing usage statistics.

Related

Genexus - Mark unrecognized procedure parameters as ignorable in webservices

I have procedures that are exposed as Webservices (REST):
I need it to be able to parse the request body ignoring unrecognized fields (that are not specified
in "rules"). Right now, when procedures tries to parse something that is not defined within the parameters, they throw the following error:
Example:
Some procedure has the following definition:
parm(in:&parm1, in:&parm2, out:&someResponse);
Then we change to:
parm(in:&parm1, in:&parm2, in:&parm3, out:&someResponse);
The web service is updated on some distributions, but on some they're still on the old version with 2 in parameters.
The service that consumes these web services on different APP distributions are sending the body with the second (latest definition).
{
"parm1" : "somevalue",
"parm2" : "somevalue",
"parm3" : "somevalue"
}
Unfortunately we don't have control of the third party that is consuming our web services, so in that case, it would be a lot easier if unused parameters could be ignored...
USING GX 16 U11 - Java Generator
Unfortunately there is no way in GeneXus 16 to "catch" the request and do something previous to the object logic. In GeneXus 17 we have the new API object, there you can transform the parameters.
But, not everything is lost. Taking into account you're generating in Java, there is an "external way" to do it with Filters. I used them to log the client requests for debugging purposes.
If you don't want to mess with the code, there is also API Gateways you could put in front of your API services to redirect the requests to the right service. Bear in mind that I'm not a specialist in this topic, maybe a post in ServerFault would help.

Apache camel to aggregate multiple REST service responses

I m new to Camel and wondering how I can implement below mentioned use case using Camel,
We have a REST web service and lets say it has two service operations callA and callB.
Now we have ESB layer in the front that intercepts the client requests before hitting this actual web service URLs.
Now I m trying to do something like this -
Expose a URL in ESB that client will actually call. In the ESB we are using Camel's Jetty component which just proxies this service call. So lets say this URL be /my-service/scan/
Now on receiving this request #ESB, I want to call these two REST endpoints (callA and callB) -> Get their responses - resA and resB -> Aggregate it to a single response object resScan -> return to the client.
All I have right now is -
<route id="MyServiceScanRoute">
<from uri="jetty:http://{host}.{port}./my-service/scan/?matchOnUriPrefix=true&bridgeEndpoint=true"/>
<!-- Set service specific headers, monitoring etc. -->
<!-- Call performScan -->
<to uri="direct:performScan"/>
</route>
<route id="SubRoute_performScan">
<from uri="direct:performScan"/>
<!-- HOW DO I??
Make callA, callB service calls.
Get their responses resA, resB.
Aggregate these responses to resScan
-->
</route>
I think that you unnecessarily complicate the solution a little bit. :) In my humble opinion the best way to call two independed remote web services and concatenate the results is to:
call services in parallel using multicast
aggregate the results using the GroupedExchangeAggregationStrategy
The routing for the solution above may look like:
from("direct:serviceFacade")
.multicast(new GroupedExchangeAggregationStrategy()).parallelProcessing()
.enrich("http://google.com?q=Foo").enrich("http://google.com?q=Bar")
.end();
Exchange passed to the direct:serviceFacadeResponse will contain property Exchange.GROUPED_EXCHANGE set to list of results of calls to your services (Google Search in my example).
And that's how could you wire the direct:serviceFacade to Jetty endpoint:
from("jetty:http://0.0.0.0:8080/myapp/myComplexService").enrich("direct:serviceFacade").setBody(property(Exchange.GROUPED_EXCHANGE));
Now all HTTP requests to the service URL exposed by you on ESB using Jetty component will generate responses concatenated from the two calls to the subservices.
Further considerations regarding the dynamic part of messages and endpoints
In many cases using static URL in endpoints is insufficient to achieve what you need. You may also need to prepare payload before passing it to each web service.
Generally speaking - the type of routing used to achieve dynamic endpoints or payloads parameters in highly dependent on the component you use to consume web services (HTTP, CXFRS, Restlet, RSS, etc). Each component varies in the degree and a way in which you can configure it dynamically.
If your endpoints/payloads should be affected dynamically you could also consider the following options:
Preprocess copy of exchange passed to each endpoint using the onPrepareRef option of the Multicast endpoint. You can use it to refer to the custom processor that will modify the payload before passing it to the Multicast's endpoints. This may be good way to compose onPrepareRef with Exchange.HTTP_URI header of HTTP component.
Use Recipient List (which also offers parallelProcessing as the Multicast does) to dynamically create the REST endpoints URLs.
Use Splitter pattern (with parallelProcessing enabled) to split the request into smaller messages dedicated to each service. Once again this option could work pretty well with Exchange.HTTP_URI header of HTTP component. This will work only if both sub-services can be defined using the same endpoint type.
As you can see Camel is pretty flexible and offers you to achieve your goal in many ways. Consider the context of your problem and choose the solution that fits you the best.
If you show me more concrete examples of REST URLs you want to call on each request to the aggregation service I could advice you which solution I will choose and how to implement it. The particularly important is to know which part of the request is dynamic. I also need to know which service consumer you want to use (it will depend on the type of data you will receive from the services).
This looks like a good example where the Content Enricher pattern should be used. Described here
<from uri="direct:performScan"/>
<enrich uri="ServiceA_Uri_Here" strategyRef="aggregateRequestAndA"/>
<enrich uri="ServiceA_Uri_Here" strategyRef="aggregateAandB"/>
</route>
The aggregation strategies has to be written in Java (or perhaps some script language, Scala/groovy? - but that I have not tried).
The aggregation strategy just needs to be a bean that implements org.apache.camel.processor.aggregate.AggregationStrategy which in turn requires you to implement one method:
Exchange aggregate(Exchange oldExchange, Exchange newExchange);
So, now it's up to you to merge the request with the response from the enrich service call. You have to do it twice since you have both callA and callB. There are two predefined aggregation strategies that you might or might not find usefull, UseLatestAggregationStrategy and UseOriginalAggregationStrategy. The names are quite self explainatory.
Good luck

What is a web service endpoint?

Let's say my web service is located at http://localhost:8080/foo/mywebservice and my WSDL is at http://localhost:8080/foo/mywebservice?wsdl.
Is http://localhost:8080/foo/mywebservice an endpoint, i.e., is it the same as the URI of my web service or where the SOAP messages received and unmarshalled?
Could you please explain to me what it is and what the purpose of it is?
This is a shorter and hopefully clearer answer...
Yes, the endpoint is the URL where your service can be accessed by a client application. The same web service can have multiple endpoints, for example in order to make it available using different protocols.
Updated answer, from Peter in comments :
This is de "old terminology", use directally the WSDL2 "endepoint"
definition (WSDL2 translated "port" to "endpoint").
Maybe you find an answer in this document : http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl.html
A WSDL document defines services as collections of network endpoints, or ports. In WSDL, the abstract definition of endpoints and messages is separated from their concrete network deployment or data format bindings. This allows the reuse of abstract definitions: messages, which are abstract descriptions of the data being exchanged, and port types which are abstract collections of operations. The concrete protocol and data format specifications for a particular port type constitutes a reusable binding. A port is defined by associating a network address with a reusable binding, and a collection of ports define a service. Hence, a WSDL document uses the following elements in the definition of network services:
Types– a container for data type definitions using some type system (such as XSD).
Message– an abstract, typed definition of the data being communicated.
Operation– an abstract description of an action supported by the service.
Port Type–an abstract set of operations supported by one or more endpoints.
Binding– a concrete protocol and data format specification for a particular port type.
Port– a single endpoint defined as a combination of a binding and a network address.
Service– a collection of related endpoints.
http://www.ehow.com/info_12212371_definition-service-endpoint.html
The endpoint is a connection point where HTML files or active server pages are exposed. Endpoints provide information needed to address a Web service endpoint. The endpoint provides a reference or specification that is used to define a group or family of message addressing properties and give end-to-end message characteristics, such as references for the source and destination of endpoints, and the identity of messages to allow for uniform addressing of "independent" messages. The endpoint can be a PC, PDA, or point-of-sale terminal.
A web service endpoint is the URL that another program would use to communicate with your program. To see the WSDL you add ?wsdl to the web service endpoint URL.
Web services are for program-to-program interaction, while web pages are for program-to-human interaction.
So:
Endpoint is: http://www.blah.com/myproject/webservice/webmethod
Therefore,
WSDL is: http://www.blah.com/myproject/webservice/webmethod?wsdl
To expand further on the elements of a WSDL, I always find it helpful to compare them to code:
A WSDL has 2 portions (physical & abstract).
Physical Portion:
Definitions - variables - ex: myVar, x, y, etc.
Types - data types - ex: int, double, String, myObjectType
Operations - methods/functions - ex: myMethod(), myFunction(), etc.
Messages - method/function input parameters & return types
ex: public myObjectType myMethod(String myVar)
Porttypes - classes (i.e. they are a container for operations) - ex: MyClass{}, etc.
Abstract Portion:
Binding - these connect to the porttypes and define the chosen protocol for communicating with this web service.
- a protocol is a form of communication (so text/SMS, vs. phone vs. email, etc.).
Service - this lists the address where another program can find your web service (i.e. your endpoint).
In past projects I worked on, the endpoint was a relative property. That is to say it may or may not have been appended to, but it always contained the protocol://host:port/partOfThePath.
If the service being called had a dynamic part to it, for example a ?param=dynamicValue, then that part would get added to the endpoint. But many times the endpoint could be used as is without having to be amended.
Whats important to understand is what an endpoint is not and how it helps. For example an alternative way to pass the information stored in an endpoint would be to store the different parts of the endpoint in separate properties. For example:
hostForServiceA=someIp
portForServiceA=8080
pathForServiceA=/some/service/path
hostForServiceB=someIp
portForServiceB=8080
pathForServiceB=/some/service/path
Or if the same host and port across multiple services:
host=someIp
port=8080
pathForServiceA=/some/service/path
pathForServiceB=/some/service/path
In those cases the full URL would need to be constructed in your code as such:
String url = "http://" + host + ":" + port + pathForServiceA + "?" + dynamicParam + "=" + dynamicValue;
In contract this can be stored as an endpoint as such
serviceAEndpoint=http://host:port/some/service/path?dynamicParam=
And yes many times we stored the endpoint up to and including the '='. This lead to code like this:
String url = serviceAEndpoint + dynamicValue;
Hope that sheds some light.
Simply put, an endpoint is one end of a communication channel. When an API interacts with another system, the touch-points of this communication are considered endpoints. For APIs, an endpoint can include a URL of a server or service. Each endpoint is the location from which APIs can access the resources they need to carry out their function.
APIs work using ‘requests’ and ‘responses.’ When an API requests information from a web application or web server, it will receive a response. The place that APIs send requests and where the resource lives, is called an endpoint.
Reference:
https://smartbear.com/learn/performance-monitoring/api-endpoints/
An Endpoint is specified as a relative or absolute url that usually results in a response. That response is usually the result of a server-side process that, could, for instance, produce a JSON string. That string can then be consumed by the application that made the call to the endpoint. So, in general endpoints are predefined access points, used within TCP/IP networks to initiate a process and/or return a response. Endpoints could contain parameters passed within the URL, as key value pairs, multiple key value pairs are separated by an ampersand, allowing the endpoint to call, for example, an update/insert process; so endpoints don’t always need to return a response, but a response is always useful, even if it is just to indicate the success or failure of an operation.
A endpoint is a URL for web service.And Endpoints also is a distributed API.
The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) endpoint is a URL. It identifies the location on the built-in HTTP service where the web services listener listens for incoming requests.
Reference: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSSHYH_7.1.0.4/com.ibm.netcoolimpact.doc/dsa/imdsa_web_netcool_impact_soap_endpoint_c.html

Timestamp of server from a web service call

Is there a way that I can retrieve the timestamp of a web service call? I'm trying to get the time of the server hosting the web service.
Easiest thing to do is to just log them in the server implementation of your service contract, you can use PostSharp to make some attributes to take of this aspect.
For instance, you can write a Trace attribute which simply logs a debug message when a method is invoke. Here's one I wrote a while back which tracks how long a method takes and log a warning message if it takes longer than a set threshold:
http://theburningmonk.com/2010/03/aop-method-execution-time-watcher-with-postsharp/
I came across some 'trace' attribute example before, if you want I can look for it for ya.

API Design: How should distinct classes of errors be handled from an asynchronous XMLHTTP call?

I have a legacy VB6 application that needs to make asynchronous calls to a web service. The web service provides a search method allows end-users to query a central database and view the results from within the application. I'm using the MSXML2.XMLHTTP to make the requests, and have written a SearchWebService class that encapsulates the web service call and code to handle the response asychronously.
Currently, the SearchWebService raises one of two events to the caller: SearchCompleted and SearchFailed. A SearchCompleted event is raised that contains the search results in a parameter to the event if the call completes successfully. A SearchFailed is raised when any type of failure is detected, which can be anything from an improperly-formatted URL (this is possible because the URL is user-configurable), to low-level network errors such as "Host not found", to HTTP errors such as internal server errors. It returns a error message string to the end-user (which is extracted from the web service response body, if present, or from the HTTP status code text if the response has no body, or translated from the network error code if a network error occurs).
Because of various security requirements, the calling application does not access the web service directly, but instead accesses it through a proxy web server running at the customer site, which in turn accesses the actual web service through via a VPN. However, the SearchWebService doesn't know that the calling application is accessing the web service through a proxy: it's just given a URL and told to make the request. The existence of the proxy is a application-level requirement.
The problem is that from an end-user perspective, it's important that the calling application be able to distinguish between low-level network errors versus HTTP errors from the web service, and to distinguish proxy errors from remote web server errors. For example, the application needs to know if a request failed because the proxy server is down, or because the remote web service that the proxy is accessing is down. An application-specific message needs to be presented to the end-user in each case, such as "Search web service proxy server appears to be down. The proxy server may need to be restarted" versus "The proxy is currently running but the remote web server appears to be unavailable. Please contact (name of person in charge of the remote web server)." I could handle this directly in the SearchWebService class, but it seems wrong to generate these application-specific error messages from such a generic class (and the class might be used in environments that don't require a proxy, where the error messages would no longer make sense).
This distinction is important for troubleshooting: a proxy server problem can usually be resolved by the customer, but a remote web server error has to handled by a third party.
I was thinking one way to handle this would be to have the SearchWebService class detect different types of errors and raise different events in each case. For example, instead of a single SearchFailed event, I could have a NetworkError event for low-level network errors (which would indicate a problem accessing the proxy server), a ConfigurationError event for invalid properties on the SearchWebService class (such as passing an improperly-formatted URL), and a ServiceError for errors that occur on the remote web server (implying that the proxy is working properly but the remote server returned an error).
Now that I think about it, there is also an additional error scenario: it could be possible that the proxy server is running properly, but the remote web server is down, or the proxy server has been misconfigured.
Is the approach of using multiple error events to classify different classes of error a reasonable solution to this problem? For the last scenario (the proxy is running but the remote server cannot be reached), I'm guessing I may have to set up the proxy to return a specific HTTP error code so that client can detect this situation (i.e. something more specific than a 500 response).
Originally I kept the single SearchFailed event and simply added an additional errorCode parameter to the event, but that got messy quickly, especially in cases where there wasn't a logical error code to use (such as if the VB6 raises a "real" error, i.e. if the XMLHTTP class isn't registered).
I think that some ideas I've used with Java exceptions may apply here.
Having a large number of different Exceptions gets pretty messy, yet we need to give enough detail to the user so we don't want to lose information.
Hence I have a small number of specific Exceptions, which I guess would correspond to your Events:
InvalidRequestEvent: Used when the user specifies bad information
TransientErrorEvent: used when there's infrastructure issues when a retry might work.
I tend to work in environments where we have clusters of servers so if a user request hits a dying server then if he resubmits he'll probably get a good one, hence from his perspective a simple retry often works. However sometimes the error is with a service such as the Network or Database and in which case the user needs diagnostic information to report to the helpdesk. Hence we need to decide on the extra information to put into the exception. This is (if I understand you correctly) your question.
In the case of InvalidRequestException we would bet giving some information about the problems with the input. It could be on the lines of "Mismatched parenthese" or "Unknown column CUTSOMER in table ORDER". In the case of TransientErrorException it could be "Proxy server is down".
Now depending upon your exact requirments you may not actually choose to put that text in the Exception, but rather an error number which the presentation layer converts to a locale-specific string (English, French ...).
So either Exception might contain something like this (sorry for that Java syntax, but I hope the idea is clear):
BaseException {
String ErrorText; // the error text itself
// OR if you want to allow for internationaliation
int ErrorCode; // my application specific code, corresponds to text held by the UI
String[] params; // specific parameters to be substitued in the error text
// CUTSOMER and ORDER in my example above
int SystemErrorCode; // If you have an underlying error code it goes here
String SystemErrorText; // any further diagnoistic you might need to give to
// the user so that they can report the problem to the
// help desk.
// OR instead of the text (this is something I've seen done)
int SystemErrorTag; // A unique id for this particular error problem.
// This server systems will label their message in the
// server logs. Users just tell the help desk this number
// they don't need to read detailed server error text.
}