Ensuring service backwards compatibility with Generic Web Services

Ensuring compatibility in service-oriented systems is a challenging task. This article addresses the challenge of maintaining Web service backwards compatibility. In particular, the authors suggest a new interface design technique called Generic Web Services that allows service providers to add new features to Web services without breaking compatibility with existing clients. This is achieved by partially shifting the semantics of service operations from design time to runtime by relaxing the operations signatures with identity parameters. Furthermore, the authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of generic Web services. The article also contains an example that applies the aforementioned technique to a Web service from SAP Enterprise Services Workplace.