17.6 Publishing and Registering an ASP.NET Web Service

You want to publish your Web Service and allow others to use it.

Technique

Publishing a Web Service uses the same procedure as publishing an ASP.NET application. To deploy the Web Service to another server, click on Project, Copy Project from the main menu. Specify the name of the server by using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), which contains the address of the Web server and the application virtual directory on the server. This method assumes that the FrontPage server extensions are installed within IIS on the remote server.

Registering a Web Service so that others can easily locate it involves accessing a Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) server and registering for an account. Microsoft runs a UDDI server at http://uddi.microsoft.com/visualstudio, but you should use it only for Web Services that have been fully tested . If you want to test your Web Service using a UDDI registry, you can go to http://test.uddi.microsoft.com/visualstudio. After you register yourself or your company ”which is free, by the way ”you can add your Web Service. Registering a new Web Service simply requires telling the UDDI registry where your WSDL file is located. However, the registry calls a WSDL file a tModel, which stands for type model . These two terms are synonymous. When registering a new tModel, you can give the name, description, and location of the WSDL file. ASP.NET automatically generates the WSDL file for you, which means there is no associated path for it. To specify the WSDL file, enter the location of the .asmx file followed by a WSDL query argument with no associated value. For instance, if you publish the Lottery Web Service on this book's Web site, you could find the WSDL file at http://www.csharpcookbook.com/LotteryService/LotteryService.asmx?WSDL.

Comments

UDDI is an open standard that serves as a registry for Web Services. Started by Microsoft, it has since become an open standard that gives interested parties the ability to search for a Web Service that their applications can consume . If there is one way to really come up to speed on Web Services, it's by playing with the UDDI registry. From simple Hello World Web Services to stock-ticker services, the UDDI registry is growing as more developers see the advantage of using Web Services. You can find additional information at the main UDDI page by visiting http://www.uddi.org.