Conclusion

In this chapter we looked at how Microsoft's .NET Framework uses metadata to create exciting opportunities in distributed computing. Metadata is an indispensable tool for advertising object behaviors and properties. Although metadata has long existed in computing, recent advancements in Internet applications development have brought it to the forefront of our thinking.

We began by investigating the exciting new Web Services distributed computing paradigm. By combining descriptive metadata with a flexible and universal data packaging specification (XML) and a ubiquitous transport protocol (HTTP), we have created a platform in Web Services that enables object-sharing at a universal level. Tomorrow's distributed Web applications will not only make use of services hosted far and wide, but they will also be brought to market faster than ever before.

Web Services solve many of the problems that have long plagued widely distributed computing. Web Services use UDDI and WSDL to enable applications to discover and understand available services at runtime. SOAP provides a convenient platform and a language-neutral way to share objects among applications. By using HTTP as a transport protocol, Web Services can easily be deployed on existing network configurations. Finally broad support for Web Services in the .NET Developer Studio and other popular development platforms will enable developers to begin using the technology immediately.

In addition to supporting Web Services, Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, the .NET Framework, and the Common Language Runtime environment arm developers with the tools they need to build advanced object-sharing applications. .NET applications can pass objects by value or by reference. Shared objects can be client-activated or server-activated. Regardless of the type of Remotable objects you build, the .NET Remoting Framework will take care of the complex task of serializing and transporting distributed data. Armed with these features, developers can solve virtually any distributed programming requirement.

We are entering an exciting time in computing. Hopefully, the small examples in this chapter have started you thinking of some practical applications for distributed technologies and Web Services in particular. Chapter 9 will lead you through real-world examples of how you can use .NET to create a fully functional enterprise application.



XML Programming
XML Programming Bible
ISBN: 0764538292
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 134

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net