Summary

This chapter covered the process of creating Web Services and how they can be used within InfoPath. A variety of standards are part of Web Services, including WSDL, SOAP, and XML. One of the major advantages of using Visual Studio.NET is that it prevents developers from having to worry about the specific implementation. The WebMethods Framework and .NET enable developers to focus on the task of defining a business process. InfoPath allows you to consume these and then extend them to provide an easy-to-use collection source. One of the major advantages of using Web Services is that they allow you to develop a fa §ade layer that can easily hide the specific implementation and sources of the repository data. However, as we will see in the next chapter, databases like Microsoft Access and SQL Server can also provide direct connectivity to InfoPath in creating an SQL data source.