Chapter 30. The System.Web.Services Namespace

The System.Web.Services namespace contains the types used for creating web services. Web services are "component-like" units of programming logic that exist on a web server as .asmx files. Web services can be incorporated seamlessly into Windows or ASP.NET applications. Web services differ from many other methods of remote method invocation (like DCOM) in that they use open XML-based standards, work over normal text HTTP channels, and can be consumed (with a little more programming work) from applications on other platforms and non-Windows operating systems.

The System.Web.Services namespace is the starting point for creating web services. It contains a WebService class that custom web services can inherit from and the WebMethodAttribute and WebServiceAttribute, which are used to mark web service classes and methods and add additional information. Most types in other web service namespaces are used seamlessly by the .NET framework and are not used directly by the .NET programmer. Figure 30-1 shows the types in this namespace.

Figure 30-1. The System.Web.Services namespace