Service virtualization container

In a computing environment, a method for performing service virtualization by using one or more service virtualization containers to aggregate service functionality from a plurality of services into an apparent service exhibiting the aggregated functionality, the method comprising:

• an act of assigning a plurality of service implementations to a service virtualization container, each service implementation having one or more service operations belonging to their respective service implementation, the service operations each comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor are capable of causing computer implemented tasks to be performed, the container selecting at least some of the service operations from the service implementations to implement service operations of the service virtualization container;
• an act of assigning each message characteristic from a plurality of message characteristics to one or more of the selected service operations and to service implementations to which the selected service operations assigned to the message characteristic belong in one or more routing tables;
• an act of querying the one or more routing tables and the service implementations for metadata;
• from metadata received from the act of querying, an act of constructing aggregated metadata describing the service virtualization container, the aggregated metadata describing the service virtualization container as if the service virtualization container were a stand-alone service;
• an act of receiving a query from a client for service metadata at a service endpoint different from the service endpoints of any of the service implementations;
• and
• an act of providing the aggregated metadata description of the service virtualization container to the client.

In a computing environment, one or more computer readable media comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the following to be performed:

• an act of assigning a plurality of service implementations to a service virtualization container, each service implementation having one or more service operations belonging to their respective service implementation, the service operations each comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor are capable of causing computer implemented tasks to be performed, the container selecting at least some of the service operations from the service implementations to implement service operations of the service virtualization container;
• an act of assigning each message characteristic from a plurality of message characteristics to one or more of the selected service operations and to service implementations to which the selected service operations assigned to the message characteristic belong in one or more routing tables;
• an act of querying the one or more routing tables and the service implementations for metadata;
• from metadata received from the act of querying, an act of constructing aggregated metadata describing the service virtualization container, the aggregated metadata describing the service virtualization container as if the service virtualization container were a stand-alone service;
• an act of receiving a query from a client for service metadata at a service endpoint different from the service endpoints of any of the service implementations;
• an act of providing at least a portion of the aggregated metadata description of the service virtualization container to the client
• an act of receiving a message at a service endpoint different from the service endpoints of any of the service implementations;
• an act of determining one or more message characteristics from the message and message delivery properties;
• an act of consulting the one or more routing tables to select a determined service operation based on the message characteristics;
• an act of selecting a service implementation, based on the message characteristics in the one or more routing tables, to which the message should be dispatched to perform the determined service operation;
• and,
• an act of routing the message to the selected service implementation.