The GlassFish Podcast has already provided some GlassFish audio, but this time Ed Ort brings us video with this interview of members of the Metro Web Services Security team. The interview, which was taped at the recent Hyderabad Sun Tech Days, starts off with interviewee background questions before it gets into the point-to-point vs. end-to-end security tradeoff (both of which Metro can do).

It then goes on to discuss the four main parts (specifications really) implemented today in Metro : WS-Security, WS-SecurityPolicy, WS-Trust, and WS-SecureConv (full list). The interview finally touches on the future beyond Metro 1.1 which is mainly about implementation of next versions of the specifications.

If nothing else, this is a good time to put a face on a name if you've been participation in the Metro mailing list or forum. If you're coming to JavaOne, you may want to write down this Microsoft/Sun session about interoperable web services.

You know the saying... "when Pigs Fly..."? Well, Clemen's Latest note starts: A flock of pigs has been doing aerobatics high up over Microsoft Campus in Redmond What he is referring is that he just checked in GlassFish and Metro into the latest Biztalk SDK! Neat! And he has some very nice words for the Metro team, as Arun highlights.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Alexis highlights another Microsofter, Stéphane, on another aspect of the same relationship: GF and NetBeans being available at Microsoft Technology Centers.

I think we may have a new mascot - the flying pig!

A new Tech Tip written by Jiandong Guo of the Application Server Web Services Security team was just posted. Read the tip and learn the basics of WS-SecureConversation. Also see an example that demonstrates how to enable secure conversations for a web service through the WS-SecureConversation support in Metro. You can find the tip here. Setting up the infrastructure can be tricky, so if you're getting started with WS-SecureConv, this is a good document to read. You can get to all the Tech Tips from this site or this blog.

Fast Infoset is a standards-based binary encoding of XML that improves performance while decreasing payload size. The initial implementation in GlassFish was for JAX-RPC but later versions use the JAX-WS API and Oleksiys has recently published an entry describing how FI users can Migrate from JAX-RPC to JAX-WS. The latest implementation of FI is FI 1.2.2, available in Metro 1.1, which runs on the current (v2) version of GlassFish but will be bundled in GlassFish v2.1.

The latest stable version of Metro (which ships as part of GlassFish v2) has been extensively tested with Microsoft's WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) version 3.0. The next version of .Net 3.5 is already out and the team is working hard to achieve the best possible interoperability with this new set of WS-* implementations.

Harold and Rama report on the most recent "plugfest" with Microsoft engineers. The work involves moving from some non-standard technologies (such as WS-ReliableMessaging 1.0 which is "just" a specification, not an open standard) to the OASIS version (OASIS WS-RM 1.1, dated July 2007) for better interoperability. The set of test scenarios is comprehensive and results very promising.

Check out Metro's roadmap here for an idea of when to expect stable releases. In the mean time, you can get the nightly builds.

Does GlassFish support REST or SOAP Web Services? Both! REST through Jersey and SOAP through Metro (Jersey will be included in a future Metro release, see Roadmap). Security is very important for SOAP Web Services and Jiandong has a set of notes describing how Metro supports WS-SX (OASIS Web Services Security Exchange). Check out the Overview, How to Issue SAML Tokens and a description of a Scenario based on WS-SX.

We recently realized that our "Web Services" page was pretty out of date. If you're new to Web Services in either Java EE 5 or in GlassFish and you are trying to make sense of Metro, JAX-WS, JAXB, WSIT, or Tango, the new version of that page is now available for you to find all about them.

You may also be interested in the list of Web Services Technical Articles and Tips. I find the Enterprise Tech Tips to be often very well written and straight to the point. Check them out and tell us what other topics you'd like to be covered.

WiseMan, the WS-Management Java implementation has now become a part of Metro (the GlassFish Web Services stack) community. WiseMan provides both client and server side APIs for building Manageable applications. Jean-François Denise is reporting on the road traveled to provide the WS-Man implementation and make fit best into the existing Metro technology. The Web Services Connector for JMX builds on top of WiseMan to provide connection with WS-Man client tools such as Windows Remote Management much like OpenDMK is a window to the SNMP world.

"What's the relationship to GlassFish?" you may ask. Well, by deploying the Web Services Connector for JMX in GlassFish, all the existing MBeans (such as those defined by AMX, by JSR 77, and by you) are automatically exposed as WS-Management resources. Clearly, the key feature of WiseMan is interoperability.

For the Web Services savvy, Jean-François' entry is buzzword compliant and a very good read (WS-Addressing, Push mode, security, etc...). WiseMan's homepage is at wiseman.dev.java.net. Version 1.0 requires Java SE 5+ or above and JAX-WS 2.1.1.

As a follow-up to a previous nice JAX-WS presentation, Stijn Van den Enden's "JAX-WS, beyond the basics" presentation is now available from parleys.com. Stijn does a good job at explaining JAX-WS handlers, JAXB customization, Dispatch/Provider API (although his example may not feel RESTful to the JAX-RS crowd), some best practices and more in a very didactic and easy to follow presentation. Everything said and presented there applies to the Metro Web Services stack that is part of GlassFish v2 (btw, Stijn is reported to be a happy GlassFish user).

No wonder this is the best-rated program on Parleys.com. The only down side is that I don't see the PDF available on the web site anywhere...

There is now a new Policy subproject of Metro (see Governance email). Quoting from the project page, the project has two distict goals: • In the short term, make JAX-WS WS-policy aware by moving out the generic policy code from project Tango. • In the long term, provide a common, abstract policy API layer. The API design should be independent of any particular policy expression language. Instead it should be use case driven and ease-of-use oriented.

In an Enterprise Tech Tip, Rama describes how to use the JAX-WS Maven plugin to develop Web services. The article describes why you may be interested in the  plugin: don't have to get the JAX-WS dependencies, set up the classpath, and configure and invoke the tool tasks for compilation and packaging -- steps required by the Ant tasks.

The different tooling options around Metro are described in an Earlier  Post.

You can also subscribe to the Tech Tips as an RSS feed.

Overview article about Project Tango (now part of Metro) is now available in Chinese as well. Read it at Sun Developer Network China.

I've not done a Weekly since Dec 23rd due to the Holiday Break (Bon Nadal!). Many people Took the Break but the is still plenty of content:

• Hudson - News Roundup, Works Like a Charm and You can Help. • Web.Next - jMaki with Jersey, Social Network Bundle and a RESTful Toolkit • HowTo - Using Metro, LifeRay, Continuum, Spring 2.5 and Mod_Proxy • Advocacy - New GUG, Atlanta and Sydney, Comet and Grizzly Slides and the GAP Program • Adoption - Kind Words, December Stats and GF blogs Around the World • Ready for Production - Overwiew, Migration and new SPECweb2005 Record • Future - GFv3 Map, New gem and Podcast, HK2 and NB6 and Sailfin M3 • New Releases - JDK 6 U4 and JSF Components from Woodstock and Manor Rock • Misc - A Troubleshooting Guide and Reducing CO2

I posted a tip describing how to override Metro 1.0 in GlassFish v2 UR1 with a more recent Metro 1.1. Several screencasts are available to get you started with Metro.

Two New Metro Releases: Metro 1.1 and 1.0.1. Check out • Vivek's Announcement &bull Last week's note on the Metro Roadmap