Web Services with PHP

GoogleDuel: Web Services And PHP

"Web Services" are emerging standards enabling companies to work together more easily across the Internet. Web Services currently allow software developers to create their own storefronts for e-commerce sites like Amazon.com, to incorporate the latest stock quotes and weather information into online applications, and to integrate data from diverse sources such as mapping databases or search engines. The growth potential for Web Services is high: according to IDC Research, "Web Services will become the dominant distributed computing architecture in the next 10 years and will eventually define the fabric of computing." As well as discussing the business implications of Web Services, this session will show how PHP is ideally suited for the deployment of Web Services, working with technologies such as XML, SOAP, WSDL, and HTTP. The session will demonstrate several examples of PHP-based Web Services applications, created by the presenter.

About the Author:
Geoff Peters recently graduated with a joint major in Computing Science and Business from SFU. He has worked as a software developer for Nokia Mobile Phones and Canada Safeway IT. He is the creator of Googleduel.com, a web site which uses the Google search engine to analyze the popularity of people, products, and names on the Internet. He is also the webmaster for FoodVancouver.com, a popular Vancouver dining guide. Geoff is also an avid musician who plays piano in a Vancouver jazz band and a folk/country dance band.

View other presentations by Geoff Peters.

Harnessing Web Services
With PHP

Geoff Peters

PHP Vancouver Conference

Jan. 23, 2004

What are Web Services

Emerging standards
Allow service applications to be
accessible across the web to client
(non-human) applications
Example: Incorporating a web-based
mapping service into your pizza delivery
application.

Pizza Application Example

Mapping

Database

Internet

Pizza

Delivery

Application

Web Services

Thanks, Web

Services!

Some Uses of Web Services

Business to Business (B2B)
communication
Online storefronts
Syndication of News Feeds

Examples of Web Services

Amazon.com (Storefronts)
Google.com (Google API)
Microsoft (MSDN, Terraservice, Mappoint,
.NET Alerts)
Bioinformatics (EMBL Nucleotide Sequence
Database, BQS)
AllConsuming.Net
Weblogs.com, Technorati.com, and
Alexa.com

Problem of Information
Fragmentation

Information is scattered in thousands of
different databases/resources
Currently, each resource (or group)
must be manually accessed

Growth of available information sources

Each resource has its own proprietary
way to access it!

Need for Common Standards

Web Services standards

will allow information from diverse sources
to be collected and combined in new ways

Future of the Internet

More integrated, useful, smarter,
customizable.

Case Study: Google.com

Google provides Web Services access to
its search engine ("Google API").
Allows programmers to retrieve search
results using code.
"Developer's Program" encourages
creativity
Limits each user to 1000 searches/day

GoogleDuel.com

An online popularity ranking system.
Uses Google's API to obtain estimated
count of search results for each term.
Example:

coke (

1,010,000

)

pepsi (

633,000

)

How about PHP vs ASP?

PHP Wins!

GoogleDuel results:
1. PHP (86,600,000)
2. ASP (78,200,000)

Good news for the PHP community!

Uses of GoogleDuel.com

Business can analyze their web
presence

Compare popularity of company name,
product lines, brands, CEO, slogans with
competitors
Use over time can show trends such as
growing popularity of a product

GoogleDuel for Writers

GoogleDuel as a tool for writers

Helps decide what phrase or word to use:

Compare similar words or phrases

Use with a thesaurus to check popularity of
a phrase
"Writers" version of GoogleDuel allows
comparison of up to 10 phrases at once.

GoogleDuel Ultra

More sophisticated ranking system.
Ranks for a list of adjectives.
Examples:

Britney Spears is more popular, but is she
more creative or talented?
Which grocery chain has the best service?

Try it at

http://www.googleduel.com

Other Uses of Google API

Gender Guesser

Searches for common patterns involving a
first name.

Calculates likelihood person is male or female.
Calculates popularity of name.

Works for ethnic names (ex. "Naveen")
Saves data and produces reports, ex:

"Most Popular Names"
"Most Feminine Names"

Demos (if time)

GoogleDuel

http://www.googleduel.com

Gender Guesser

http://cgi.sfu.ca/~gpeters/cgi-
bin/pear/gender.php

Technical Side

Some current Web Services standards:
SOAP

XML based protocol, works over HTTP.
Allows variables to be passed to/from a
remote procedure call.

Parameter format defined in a WSDL document

Adopted by Microsoft (.NET), Google,
Amazon.

A competing standard to SOAP

"REST" "Representational State
Transfer"
HTTP based

Uses HTTP for security/authentication

Parameters encoded in URL, not in a SOAP
envelope.
Returns an XML document.

Some advocate it as "second generation
web services"

Some sites provide REST interfaces as well as SOAP.

PHP Support for Web Services

SOAP package in Pear library

Developed by Shane Caraveo and Arnaud
Limbourg
Provides both Client and Server support
Makes Web Services easy to write and
access for PHP developers.

NuSOAP

An alternate library, quite popular.

Example Accessing Google

include("SOAP/Client.php");

$soapclient = new SOAP_Client('http://api.google.com/search/beta2');

$soapoptions = array('namespace' => 'urn:GoogleSearch',

'trace' => 0);

$ret = $soapclient->call('doGoogleSearch', $params = array(

'key' => $key, 'q' => $query, 'start' => 0, 'maxResults' => 1, 'filter' =>

false, 'restrict' => '', 'safeSearch' => false, 'lr' => '', 'ie' => '', 'oe'
=> '',), $soapoptions);

if (PEAR::isError($ret))

{ // error handling goes here

}

else // We have proper search results

{

// Results from the Google search are stored in the object $ret.

// in this example, the only thing we need from the search results

// is the estimatedTotalResultsCount

$num = $ret->estimatedTotalResultsCount;

}

Growth of Web Services

According to IDC Research, "Web
services will become the dominant
distributed computing architecture in
the next 10 years and will eventually
define the fabric of computing."
Reducing integration costs
Service-oriented computing as opposed
to presentation-oriented

Web Services Business Models

Charge small amount per-use of service

Eventually, will Google do this?

Subscription-based services

Microsoft's Mappoint.

Use free Web Services to generate sales
and interest

Amazon's storefront approach

Other Business Models

Better vertical integration

Automated information exchanges between
different levels in distribution channels
Business to Business services

Mobile Web Services

Web services on wireless devices / cell
phones

Advantages of Web Services

Shorter Development Time

No need to "re-invent the wheel".
Libraries for web services becoming more
stable.

Standardized Integration
Standardized Access

Use universal HTTP protocol.
Can be accessed anywhere on Internet.

Current Challenges

Service discovery

How to locate Web Services
Create a registry of web services, ex. UDDI

Security and reliability (authentication,
encryption)

Ex: Use existing protocols such as SSL with
credentials/Token Based authentication

Transactions

Multiple transactions synchronous/asynchronous

Performance

Comparing Web Services with
other Distributed Models

Other distributed models:

CORBA, DCOM, Java/RMI

For use within a homogeneous system, or cooperating
enterprise systems.
Not well suited for use over Internet.

Web Services will not replace these existing
standards

For use in exchange of information in a
decentralized, distributed environment.

i.e. over the Internet.

Conclusion

Web services are important to the
future of the Internet (service-oriented
computing).
PHP libraries make web services easy
and accessible for PHP developers.