Web Services

The definition about Web Service is actually a software component stored on one computer that can be accessed via function calls by an application on another computer over a network.

                                          

HTTP protocol facilitated Human-to-Application like communications and there was an increasing demand for Application-to-Application communication with the traditional existing techniques.HTTP was not adequate for more complex operations like remote operation.

                                                                                                         

In Late 1999,Microsoft published SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) an XML-based protocol and then IBM support came into picture in early 2000 and the term Web Services was coined several months later,when IBM,Microsoft,and Ariba jointly published the Web Services Description Language (WSDL).

Web Service normally resides on a server.The term coined for making a web service available to recieve client requests is known as Publishing a Web Service and using a web service from a client application is known as Consuming a Web Service.Web Services have the characteristic like software portability and reusability in applications that operate over the internet. 

Some of  the Web technologies used are as follows.

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) which allows client to call remote service.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)

WSIL (Web Services Inspection Language)

UDDI (Universal Description,Discovery and Integration) a standard used for publishing or query web services.

                                                    
Web services are meant for developers but not for novice users.Web services are platform and language independent.Web services have important implications for business to business transactions.