Method and system for automating generation of web services from existing service components

A method for generating a Web service, comprising:

• receiving an identification of an available service adapted for providing functional behavior, the available service lacking invoking rules and transport structure to configure the available service as a Web service for use over a communications network;
• generating a description of invoking rules for the available service;
• creating a transport structure for client messages to and from the available service over the communications network;
• publishing the available service as a Web service accessible over the communications network, wherein the Web service provides at least the functional behavior over the communications network;
• and
• receiving a technologies selection input, wherein the generating, creating, and publishing are performed based on the received technologies selection input.

A computer-based method for generating a Web service from existing services available on a computer system, comprising:

• locating a first set of available services on the computer system using a first services searching technique;
• locating a second set of available services on the computer system using a second services searching technique differing from the first services searching technique;
• displaying the first and second sets of available services to a user;
• receiving user input selection information indicating at least one of the available services to include in the Web service;
• and
• generating a Web services framework for the indicated at least one of the available services to allow the indicated at least one of the available services to be used, located, and accessed by a client device using Web service standard communications over a digital communications network.

An apparatus for generating a Web service for use over a digital communications network, comprising:

• means for identifying first and second service components adapted for providing a first and a second functionality for inclusion in a new Web service, wherein the first and second service components comprise callable methods not configured as Web services on the digital communications network;
• means for generating a description of the new Web service including a calling structure based on the first and second service components;
• means for creating a transport structure for requests to and responses from the new Web service suited for data transfer over the communications network;
• and
• means for advertising the new Web service on the communications network.