In the Real WorldWhy Web Services Are Important

In the Real World Why Web Services Are Important

The introduction to this chapter observed that Web services were in the "early adopter" stage when Microsoft released Office 2003. Most organizations' information technology (IT) groups are conducting internal pilot deployments of Web services for enterprise application integration (EAI) projects. EIA is a catch-all term for making packaged and custom software from multiple vendors often running under different operating systems communicate with one another. EIA consumes much of the programming effort and IT budgets of medium to large organizations. Web services promise to reduce EIA costs dramatically by breaking away from proprietary interapplication communication methods and moving to standards-based messaging with XML and SOAP.

Business-to-business (B2B) communication over the Internet is another promising application for Web services. The first commercial B2B Web service implementations are likely to involve supply-chain management (SCM). SCM enables organizations to automate purchasing and contracting operations with "business partners." Many standards bodies are involved in establishing a common XML vocabulary for B2B services. OASIS's electronic business XML (ebXML) is an example of a standardized XML business document format intended to replace costly and complex Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) programs with XML Web services.

One of the primary reasons that Web services are important to Access power users and developers is Microsoft's implementation of XML Web service interfaces in almost all new products. As examples, InfoPath is a Web service consumer, and SQL Server Reporting Services, which Microsoft announced in February 2003, is a Web service provider. Yukon, the codename for the next version of SQL Server, adds built-in service provider capability to eliminate the need for IIS as a participant in the SOAP message chain. Windows SharePoint Services also offers Web service connectivity. It wouldn't surprise anyone if a future XBox version turns out to be a Web service consumer.

Word and Excel 2003's integration of the .NET Common Language Runtime lets Visual Studio .NET developers take full advantage of complex commercial Web services. Despite WSR's limitations, such as the inability to handle SOAP headers, you can take advantage of free, public Web services in your Access applications today. An Oakland, California publisher of a scholarly journal uses EraServer's AddressCorrector service daily to verify U.S. addresses in a 15,000-row Access subscriber database. Ultimately, the USPS probably will provide a public XML Web service for this purpose, eliminating AddressCorrector as a middleman. Amazon.com provides a Web service interface to its product catalogs and Google offers a SOAP-enabled search service. Other major players in related markets are sure to follow suite.

Delivering data from your ADP's MSDE 2000 stored procedures as XML Web services might strike you as "new technology for technology's sake," but SQLXML 3.0+ makes the process so easy that it's almost trivial. This capability extends Access's reach to department-level and even enterprise-wide projects. If your current or future employment plans involve database development or administration, a basic understanding of XML Web services is or soon will become essential.