Is it possible to migrate Oracle SOA BPEL instances from one environment to another with history?

What are some good resources, tools/software and/or books for learning about web services (WSDL, BPEL, WSCL, etc.)?

• I am interested in web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) in general. As a result, it is my intention to conduct research into this area toward a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering. However, much to my dismay, I have come to the realization that my PRACTICAL experience with web services does not go beyond the typical REST APIs the average software developer deals with (I'm talking Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, etc). In order to conduct any meaningful research into this area, I absolutely need to get up to speed with the more complicated enterprise stack (SOAP, WSDL, BPEL, OWL-S, etc.). I am hoping to get some pointers to some useful resources, tools/software and/or books I'd need in order to be to get some practical hands-on experience with these technologies and methods. Hopefully then, after I've gotten a thorough understanding of the basics, I'd be able to go ahead with some meaningful research into this area. Of course, I have read about the basic stuff that one can find on sites like w3schools, etc. However, I'm looking for something more hands-on and practical.

• Answer:

  W3 Schools? Seriously? That said you will want to dig deeper into Microsoft's stack, they have been strong on SOAP, you will find a lot of literature there about the different protocols. There is some interesting stuff there, especially about distributed transaction processing. That said, SOAP was a rather misguided attempt to bring traditional client server patterns into the internet age. But that's just my opinion.