Chapter 22. Web Services | Visual Basic 2005 for Programmers (2nd Edition)

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

...if the simplest things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.

Eleonora Duse

Protocol is everything.

Francoise Giuliani

They also serve who only stand and wait.

John Milton

Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:

What a Web service is.

How to create Web services.

The important part that XML and the XML-based Simple Object Access Protocol play in enabling Web services.

The elements that comprise Web services, such as service descriptions.

How to create a client that uses a Web service.

How to use Web services with Windows applications and Web applications.

How to use session tracking in Web services to maintain state information for the client.

How to pass user-defined types to a Web service.

Outline

22.1 Introduction
22.2 .NET Web Services Basics
22.2.1 Creating a Web Service in Visual Web Developer
22.2.2 Determining a Web Service's Functionality
22.2.3 Testing a Web Service's Methods
22.2.4 Building a Client to Use a Web Service
22.3 Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
22.4 Publishing and Consuming Web Services
22.4.1 Defining the HugeInteger Web Service
22.4.2 Building a Web Service in Visual Web Developer
22.4.3 Deploying the HugeInteger Web Service
22.4.4 Creating a Client to Consume the HugeInteger Web Service
22.4.5 Consuming the HugeInteger Web Service
22.5 Session Tracking in Web Services
22.5.1 Creating a Blackjack Web Service
22.5.2 Consuming the Blackjack Web Service
22.6 Using Web Forms and Web Services
22.6.1 Adding Data Components to a Web Service
22.6.2 Creating a Web Form to Interact with the Airline Reservation Web Service
22.7 User-Defined Types in Web Services
22.8 Wrap-Up
22.9 Web Resources