System and method for providing web services with load balancing

A computer-readable storage medium containing encoded data corresponding to computer readable instructions for a programmable computer system for implementing a method for providing web services for image processing in a document processing environment, the method comprising:

• receiving a web service message from an application program;
• and
• identifying the web service message as a web service request message;
• maintaining a count of pending web service requests for each of a plurality of web services providing data processing services to the application program;
• selecting one of the plurality of web services using the count of pending web service requests for each of the plurality of web services utilizing a round robin selection mechanism;
• and
• forwarding the web service message to one of the plurality of web services to obtain data processing services for the application program;
• wherein the round robin selection mechanism maintains a next web service ID count for identifying one of the plurality of web services to be selected.

A distributed processing system for providing image processing in a document processing environment;

• the system comprising:
• an application program;
• a load balancing web service;
• and
• a plurality of web services providing data processing services to the application program;
• wherein the load balancing web service:
• receives a web service request message from the application program;
• maintains a count of pending web service requests for each of a plurality of web services providing data processing services to the application program;
• selects one of the plurality of web services using the count of pending web service requests for each of the plurality of web services;
• and
• forwards the web service message to one of the plurality of web services to obtain data processing services for the application program.