Those who are developing Web services often lack the testing and management tools that are taken for granted in other development environments. Also, many Web services projects are low on the company radar and in trial phases, so it can be tough to get the budget to purchase a high-end system to manage them.
Thats why I was glad to see a free tool come out that can help Web services developers test, monitor and manage their services in a simple yet capable interface. AmberPoints AmberPoint Express, accessed remotely via a Web browser, is a servlet-based management tool that sits on the server delivering the Web services.
On installation, AmberPoint Express discovered all the Web services on my server, and from there I could monitor performance, traffic numbers and test services by sending customized SOAP messages. AmberPoint Express doesnt provide all the capabilities Id like for analyzing, managing and debugging Web services, but its quite capable for a free product.
AmberPoint Express integrates well with Microsofts .Net Web services, but on the Java side, it supports only the Tomcat server and IBMs WebSphere and runs only on Windows.
To download AmberPoint Express or to get more information, go to www.amberpoint.com.
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