Web Services

A web service is a software component that uses open, XML-based standards and transport protocols to exchange data with calling clients. The EMu Web Services system comprises a number of standards based interfaces that provide access to data stored within EMu and elsewhere. These interfaces allow third party software systems to query EMu and have the results presented in a well defined XML result set. These results may then be used to present information in new and exciting ways. For example, a system may produce a map that plots latitude and longitude values for a given set of specimens.

The web services provided by EMu Web Services are:

  • DiGIR (Distributed Generic Information Retrieval) - provides access to biological specimen data.
  • EMu Portal - provides querying and collation of data from multiple sources via a single source.
  • Web Maps - allows data from single or multiple sources to be collected and plotted on maps.

    The Web Maps Web Service takes advantage of the excellent MapServer software to provide rendering of spatial data for web viewing. The MapServer software must be installed if Web Maps functionality is required.

Note: Before configuring EMu Web Services, EMuWeb must be installed and operational. Comprehensive installation and configuration information for EMuWeb and EMu Web Services can be found on the EMu website.
It is not recommended that any client attempt to implement EMuWeb as a fresh installation without first consulting Axiell.

A prerequisite for installing EMu Web Services is that the EMuWeb system is installed and operational. The Web Services interfaces take advantage of the low level functionality provided by EMuWeb. EMuWeb can be installed on the local EMu server or on a remote web server. EMu Web Services must be installed on the same server as EMuWeb.

A web services component is installed as part of the EMu server-side installation. Individual clients can be configured to distribute any of the web services listed above. By default, clients are not distributed with any web service components unless the System Manager has configured the server installation bundle to distribute them.