[kepler-users] WSDL interface

[Matthew Jones]

Hi Paul and Stuart,

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to accomplish with a web services 
interface, but I think it is probably clode to what we were aiming for 
with our distributed execution feature.

The distributed execution features you describe are working in the 
Kepler head, but only the basic framework is in place.  You can define a 
workflow, and it can be run on a set of Kepler slave nodes that the user 
can configure.  There is still a lot of testing needed, and a number of 
additional user-interface features are needed to make it easy to deploy 
and use.  Lucas could probably give you an update, but I think the 
second web page that Paul cited is current (Chad updated it recently).

The distributed execution feature allows one to run sub-workflows 
(defined using the Discributed COmposite Actor) on remote nodes, and the 
Kepler system takes care of moving the required workflow specification 
and data to the remote node, executing the code, and returning the 
results. This is somewhat different than exposing a workflow as a web 
service that can be called from other clients.

The current distributed execution implementation takes care of data 
staging, so unlike in Paul's case, the data is returned to the caller as 
specified in the workflow specification.  I suspect a web services layer 
could be placed in front of the distributed nodes, but maybe this isn't 
needed if the distributed execution feature is really what is needed. 
Maybe Chad or Lucas would have more information on whether this would be 
possible or desirable.

Regards,
Matt

Paul Allen wrote:
> There is some work and design that has been done for executing workflows 
> in a distributed fashion, but I'm not sure of their status.
> 
> See http://www.kepler-project.org/Wiki.jsp?page=DistributedKepler and 
> http://www.kepler-project.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WorkingDistributedFeatures
> 
> I am building a system to have a stable of (remote) Kepler engines 
> watching a job queue and then picking jobs to run. It wouldn't be hard 
> for me to add a web service interface to the job queue section. However, 
> you'll find that one of the challenging issues about remote execution, 
> is that the workflow has to be smart about where to put its results.
> 
> -Paul
> 
> Stuart Chalk wrote:
>> I'm new to kepler but love what it can do.
>>
>> My question is I would like to use kepler as a web service (WSDL). Is  
>> it possible to do that?
>> For instance I would like to be able to send the service a workflow  
>> and input data and have it return the result.
>>
>> Stuart Chalk, Ph.D.
>> Associate Professor of Chemistry
>> Department of Chemistry and Physics
>> University of North Florida
>> 1 UNF Drive
>> Jacksonville FL 32224
>> P: 904-620-1938
>> F: 904-620-1989
>> E: schalk at unf.edu
>> W: http://www.unf.edu/coas/chemphys/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>   
> 
> 
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                       Ph: 1-907-523-1960
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinfo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~