Data Transfer through Web Services

Framework for including Third party Data thru Web Services

Defense Date:

  1. Committee Members and Signatures:

Approved by Date

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Advisor: Dr. Edward Chow

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Committee member: Dr Chuan Yue.

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Committee member: Dr. Jia Rao

  1. Introduction:

The Internet revolutionized how users interact with application specifically how computers talk to other computer by providing a universal data format that lets data be easily adapted or transferred. Before Web services, Internet computing and e-commerce were based on the exchange of information through Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) [MSDN2010] Developers created one-time, proprietary solutions for system integration. Web services have emerged as the next generation of Web-based technology for exchanging information.

Modern organizations face increasingly complex information management requirements. A combination of commercial needs, legal liability and regulatory imperatives has created a patchwork of mandated policies. Among these, personally identifying customer records must be carefully access-controlled, sensitive files must be encrypted on mobile computers to guard against physical theft, and intellectual property must be protected from both exposure and "poisoning." However, enforcing such policies can be quite difficult in practice since users routinely share data over networks and derive new files from these inputs--incidentally laundering any policy restrictions.[Ref Neon,Others]

Open standards and the focus on communication and collaboration among people and applications have created an environment where XML Web Services are becoming a platform for application integration. Applications are constructed using multiple XML Web Services from various sources that work together regardless of where they reside or how they were implemented.

In the health care industry it has been more and more important to have centralized data. The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information[ HHS2012]. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes. Health Care companies need to comply with the HIPPA rules and regulations as most of them transmit any information in an electronic form in connection with a transaction for which HHS (U. S Department of Health and Human Services) has adopted a standard. To regularize operations of these companies I have been motivated to collect health care data and centralize it in a centralize database. The collection of data thru web services provides an efficient mean to achieve a systematic collection of electronic health information about individual patients or populationsin a digital format that is theoretically capable of being shared across different health care settings.

I have gone thru the references stated below and it is a proven fact that XML is now an established technology for the description and transportation of data, and has made a major impact on almost every aspect of software development [Dalvi 2001,Others] Professional XML for .NET Developers. Chicago). When Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework, they took advantage of XML wherever they could. No other technology is so tightly bound with .NET as XML, both at the developer level and underlying the whole framework. Due to this I have decided to build the web services in the .NET framework using XML.

  1. Project Plan :

The goal of my project is to design web services for health care companies to access third party data and integrate into their own database using web services. This project introduces the concept of a secure data capsule, which refers to an encapsulation of sensitive health information of patients along with code that implements an interface suitable for the use of such information (such as electronic health records ) by a service[Maniatis, Petros, 2011].The important requirement is that the deployment mechanism must ensure that the user's data is only accessed via the interface sanctioned by the user. The framework further allows an user to specify policies regarding which services or machines may host her capsule, what parties are allowed to access the interface, and with what parameters. The combination of interface restrictions and policy control lets us bound the impact of an attacker who compromises the service to gain access to the user's capsule or a malicious insider at the service itself.

3.1 Tasks:

3.1.1 Already Complete –
Master the XML Classes that are available under in .NET are under System.Xml namespace, which provides standards-based support for processing XML.
  • Master the SQL Classes that are available in .NET are under the System.Data.SqlClient namespace, which is the SQL Server .NET Data Provider
3.1.2In Progress Design files which will contain web services information to be displayed and updated.
  • To prototype the GUI for data collection thru Web Services.(ref:[Short 2002] Building XML Web Services for the Microsoft .NET Platform. )
Activate the GUI and simulation - i.e. make it work and present a working system.
3.1.3 Future - Must be done
  • Write Project Documentation.
  • Complete development of V1.0 of Data Collection Framework thru Web Services
  • Write user manuals and file design documents for the developed capsule.
  • Design files for activity and boundary crossing data and for other necessary data.
  • Build the web service.
  • Build the web client.
  • Build the console client.
  • Test and running the web service.
  • Test and running the web client.
  • Test and running the console client.

3.2 Deliverables:

  • The Web Services tool for data collection.
  • A project report documenting the design and implementation of the Data Collection Web Service, related drawings and code and the lessons learned in this thesis project.

4.0 References

  • [Freeman, A. & Jones,2003] Microsoft .NET XML Web Services Step by Step.
  • [MSDN2010
  • [HHS2012]
  • Microsoft .NET web site. What are XML Web Services?, URL:
  • (January 14, 2002)
  • dnwebsrv/html/webservbasics.asp [2001]
  • [6] Tapang, Carlos C. Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Explained, URL:
  • dnwebsrv/html/wsdlexplained.asp (July 2001)
  • [WykeLeupen, B.2002]. XML Programming. Redmond, Washington:
  • [ Deitel & Nieto, T. R. 2001] Internet and World Wide Web How toprogram.
  • [9 Visual Studio .NET Help pages 2012] for “XSLT Transformations with the XslTransform Class”
  • [10] Visual Studio .NET Help pages for “XPthDocument ”
  • [11] Visual Studio .NET Help pages for “XmlTextWriter”
  • [12] Visual Studio .NET Help pages for “HTTP Headers Reference”
  • [13] Visual Studio .NET Help pages for “Comparing XmlReader to SAX Reader”
  • [14] Skonnard, Aaron. XML in .NET: .NET Framework XML Classes and C# Offer Simple,
  • [Scalable] Data Manipulation,January 2001] MSDN Magazine
  • [Maniatis, Petros, 2011]Ref:
  • [Newo,Others]