Web services is nothing but a resource through which you can convert your applic ation into web

application, also it helps data transfer between various platform s and applications and the most recommended format of transferring data is XML. XML has been recognized by W3C to be used exclusively for web services, in other words data is carried out in XMLs. Web services basically consists of three elements : 1. SOAP 2. WSDL 3. UDDI SOAP : SOAP is Simple Object Access Protocol, which enables the transfer of data between various platforms and different languages, so this becomes the main par t of web services. It uses HTTP protocol for the transfer of data. SOAP basically consists of Envelope Header Body Fault Envelope : Envelope is the root element of the SOAP message, it consists soap:xm lns namespace which has default value of : --------------------------------------------------------------------------"http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope" --------------------------------------------------------------------------Example : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<?xml version="1.0"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope" soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding"> ............ Messages that you want to transfer ............ </soap:Envelope> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If any namespace other than soap:xmlns is used, it will not allow the transfer a nd generate an error. SOAP encoding Style attribute : It is the basic encoding style used in the SOAP soap:encodingStyle="URI". Header : Header is the first element of Envelope element in the SOAP message. It contains three attributes : mustUnderstand actor encodingStyle Body : This contains the actual message that will be transferred. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<?xml version="1.0"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope" soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding"> <soap:Body>

<m:GetPrice xmlns:m="http://www.w3schools.com/prices"> <m:Item>Apples</m:Item> </m:GetPrice> </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fault : It is an optional element and it is used to indicate error messages. WSDL : Web Services Description Language, is other part of web services which is used to locate and describe the application that is converted into web applicat ion. It's simply a link that takes you to the application, in other words you co nvert the data that is inter-operable between different platforms using SOAP and WSDL takes you to that data. UDDI : Universal Description, Discovery and Intergration, is a kind of directory for storing the information about web services it transfers data via SOAP.