Web Services (Using SOAP, XML etc)
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Browse All TopicsWhat exactly is web services (in plainest english terms)?
And what are the main advantages of Web Services?
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From the Web Services tutorial at java.sun.com (http://java.sun.com/webse
"Web services, as the name implies, are services offered via the Web. In a typical Web services scenario, a business application sends a request to a service at a given URL using the SOAP protocol over HTTP. The service receives the request, processes it, and returns a response. An often-cited example of a Web service is that of a stock quote service, in which the request asks for the current price of a specified stock, and the response gives the stock price. This is one of the simplest forms of a Web service in that the request is filled almost immediately, with the request and response being parts of the same method call.
Another example could be a service that maps out an efficient route for the delivery of goods. In this case, a business sends a request containing the delivery destinations, which the service processes to determine the most cost-effective delivery route. The time it takes to return the response depends on the complexity of the routing, but the response will probably be sent as an operation that is separate from the request.
Web services and consumers of Web services are typically businesses, making Web services predominantly business-to-business (B-to-B) transactions. An enterprise can be the provider of Web services and also the consumer of other Web services. For example, a wholesale distributor of spices could be in the consumer role when it uses a Web service to check on the availability of vanilla beans and in the provider role when it supplies prospective customers with different vendors' prices for vanilla beans."
-corey
I perceive web-services as simply a further expansion/improvment on distributed programming. It addresses the same requirements but uses newer technologies/standards.
Web services employ/use XML and thereby provides advantages in the data format. So, the data can be pumped from the server, the client, the database, a web-browser, another application, or just whereever it is needed.
My quick-n-dirty answer/comment/2-cents...
Tom
This top ten FAQs list may help a little.
http://www.oreillynet.com/
Or this summary article describing the new JavaWorld Web Services column:
http://www.javaworld.com/j
I would classify Web Services as a set of cooperating technologies that provide a feature for building large, distributed apps. One problem is that there is not sufficient agreement between vendors of some of the enabling technologies.
Bernard
Business Accounts
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by: googlyralphPosted on 2002-04-15 at 08:00:42ID: 6942264
Are you sure you mean web services? Not Web Server? If web services, in what context?
GR.