In this chapter, you learned about creating and managing XML Web services. We covered the following topics:
An introduction to how XML Web services work. XML Web services are nonproprietary and cross-platform.
The underlying technologies that support XML Web services are HTTP, XML, XSD, and SOAP.
UDDI is a mechanism for locating available XML Web services via an online registry system. It can be searched manually or through a programmatic interface.
The properties and methods of the .NET Framework System.Web.Services base class, from which all XML Web services application classes must inherit.
How to use Visual Studio .NET to quickly create an XML Web service. How to test XML Web services directly from a web browser.
.NET Framework attributes are defined to mark WebService classes and WebMethods.
Other attributes, such as SoapDocumentMethod and SoapRpcMethod, can determine how the XML wire format of the SOAP message is created.
How static and dynamic discovery documents are generated, so that clients can locate XML Web services on a server.
How Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provides clients with information on available Web methods, parameter requirements, and return values.
How to use Visual Studio .NET to create both Windows and web-based client applications to consume XML Web services.
How to call Web methods asynchronously from your client applications by using the AsyncCallback class.
How to create and use custom SOAP headers to pass application-specific data along with an XML Web service request.
How to create and use SOAP extensions to run custom processing code at different stages of SOAP message transmission.