Flexible web service middleware architecture for heterogenous mobile appliances

Following several years of development, Web service (WS) has become an extensively adopted software programming method. WS initially involved solving difficult integration problems owing to its loosely coupled architecture and programming language independence whereas, now, it is used in many domains. This work presents a novel middleware architecture, called flexible Web service middleware (FWSM), in which virtual Web service (VWS) is used not only to resolve problems involving inflexible service providers of standard WS, but also to improve VWS to flexible virtual Web service (FVWS) which facilitates relations between WS and FVWS, as made possible by the WS provider. Moreover, FWSM also uses dynamic invocation and user interface makeup language (UIML) to enable mobile clients to bind with WS and generate user interface (UI) more dynamically and flexibly.