Chapter 5. Web Services

Team-Fly

---

  

	XML, Web Services, and the Data Revolution By Frank  P.  Coyle
	Table of Contents

---

Web services is an effort to extend the Web from an infrastructure that provides services to humans to one that provides services to software looking to connect with other software. Web services builds on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), taking it to the next level by adding a process and set of protocols that businesses can use to find each other and interact over the Web instead of over preestablished networks. The key ingredient in Web services is a repository that adds another player to the traditional client-provider equation. It's an effort to realize the object-oriented dream of component assembly, except now in a loosely coupled global Web where the vocabulary is about services instead of objects.

To understand Web services we'll look at two XML initiatives, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) and Web Services Definition Language (WSDL), to see how they underpin the vision of the Web as a software distribution medium. We'll also look at Electronic Business XML (ebXML) as an example of adding a process model to Web interactions. As we examine the Web services model, it's important to realize that the Web services vision is not a done deal. Although all the major industry players are investing heavily in Web services, it remains to be seen how this vision of discovery and interaction will play out.

---

Team-Fly

Top