Web Services

Web Services

Web services are application components

Web services communicate using open protocols

Web services are self-contained and self-describing

Web services can be discovered using UDDI

Web services can be used by other applications

HTTP and XML is the basis for Web services

Web services are web application components.

Web services can be published, found, and used on the Web.

It can be exposed and used by any technology and any platform

Interoperability has Highest Priority

When all major platforms could access the Web using Web browsers,
different platforms couldn't interact. For these platforms to work
together, Web-applications were developed.
Web-applications are simply applications that run on the web. These are
built around the Web browser standards and can be used by any browser on
any platform.
Web Services take Web-applications to the Next Level
By using Web services, your application can publish its function or
message to the rest of the world.
Web services use XML to code and to decode data, and SOAP to transport it
(using open protocols).
Web Services have Two Types of Uses
1. Reusable application-components.
Web services can offer application-components like: currency conversion,
weather reports, or even language translation as services.
2. Connect existing software.
Web services can help to solve the interoperability problem by giving
different applications a way to link their data.
With Web services you can exchange data between different applications and different
platforms.

Web Services
What are Web Services ?

A web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the Internet
and uses a standardized XML messaging system.

XML is used to encode all communications to a web service. For example, a client
invokes a web service by sending an XML message, then waits for a corresponding XML
response.

Because all communication is in XML, web services are not tied to any one operating
system or programming language--Java can talk with Perl; Windows
applications can talk with Unix applications.

Web services are XML-based information exchange systems that use the Internet for
direct application-to-application interaction.

Best Definition :

Is available over the Internet or private (Intranet) networks

Uses a standardized XML messaging system

Is not tied to any one operating system or programming language

Is self-describing via a common XML grammar

Is discoverable via a simple find mechanism

Components of Web Services?

The basic Web services platform is XML + HTTP. All the standard Web
Services works using following components
1. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
2. UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration)
3. WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
Benefits of using Web Services
Exposing the existing function on to network:
A Web service is a unit of managed code that can be remotely invoked
using HTTP, that is, it can be activated using HTTP requests. So, Web
Services allows you to expose the functionality of your existing code over the network. Once

Web Services
it is exposed on the network, other application can use the functionality
of your program.
Connecting Different Applications ie Interoperability:
Web Services allows different applications to talk to each other and share data and services
among themselves. Other applications can also use the services of the web
services.

For

example

VB

or

.NET

application

can

talk

to

JAVA

web

services and vice versa. So, Web services is used to make the application
platform and technology independent.
Standardized Protocol:
Web Services uses standardized industry standard protocol for the
communication.
All the four layers (Service Transport, XML Messaging, Service
Description and Service Discovery layers) uses the well defined protocol
in the Web Services protocol stack.
This standardization of protocol stack gives the business many advantages
like wide range of choices, reduction in the cost due to competition and
increase in the quality.
Low Cost of communication:
Web Services uses SOAP over HTTP protocol for the communication, so you
can use your existing low cost Internet for implementing Web Services.
This solution is much less costly compared to proprietary solutions like
EDI/B2B. Beside SOAP over HTTP, Web Services can also be implemented on
other reliable transport mechanisms like FTP etc.

Web Service Roles

There are three major roles within the web service architecture:
Service provider
This is the provider of the web service. The service provider implements
the service and makes it available on the Internet.
Service requester
This is any consumer of the web service. The requester utilizes an existing web
service by opening a network connection and sending an XML request.

Web Services
Service registry
This is a logically centralized directory of services. The registry
provides a central place where developers can publish new services or
find existing ones. It therefore serves as a centralized clearinghouse
for companies and their services.
2. Web Service Protocol Stack
A second option for viewing the web service architecture is to examine
the emerging web service protocol stack. The stack is still evolving, but
currently has four main layers.

Service transport

This layer is responsible for transporting messages between applications. Currently, this
layer includes hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol (SMTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and newer protocols, such
as Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP).

XML messaging

This layer is responsible for encoding messages in a common XML format so that messages
can be understood at either end. Currently, this layer includes XML-RPC and
SOAP.

Service description

This layer is responsible for describing the public interface to a specific web service.
Currently, service description is handled via the Web Service Description
Language (WSDL).

Service discovery

This layer is responsible for centralizing services into a common registry, and providing easy
publish/find

functionality.

Currently,

service

discovery

is

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI).

WSDL
What is WSDL?

WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language

WSDL is written in XML

WSDL is an XML document

handled

via

Web Services

WSDL is used to describe Web services

WSDL is also used to locate Web services

WSDL is a W3C recommendation

UDDI
Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is a directory service
where businesses can register and search for Web services.

What is UDDI
UDDI is a platform-independent framework for describing services,
discovering businesses, and integrating business services by using the
Internet.

UDDI stands for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

UDDI is a directory for storing information about web services

UDDI is a directory of web service interfaces described by WSDL

UDDI communicates via SOAP

UDDI is built into the Microsoft .NET platform

SOAP

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.

SOAP is a protocol for accessing web services.

SOAP is based on XML.

What is SOAP?

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol

SOAP is a communication protocol

SOAP is for communication between applications

SOAP is a format for sending messages

SOAP communicates via Internet

SOAP is platform independent

SOAP is language independent

SOAP is based on XML

SOAP is simple and extensible

Web Services

SOAP allows you to get around firewalls

SOAP is a W3C recommendation