Introduction to Web Services!

What are Web Services?

Web service is a way of communication that allows interoperability between different applications on different platforms, for example, a java based application on Windows can communicate with a .Net based one on Linux. The communication can be done through a set of XML messages over HTTP protocol.

Web services are browsers and operating system independent service, which means it can run on any browser without the need of making any changes. Web Services take Web-applications to the Next Level.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has defined the web services. According to W3C, “Web Services are the message-based design frequently found on the Web and in enterprise software. The Web of Services is based on technologies such as HTTP, XML, SOAP, WSDL, SPARQL, and others.”

A web service has special behavioral characteristics:
XML Based

By using XML as the data representation layer for all web services protocols and technologies that are created, these technologies can be interoperable at their core level. As a data transport, XML eliminates any networking, operating system, or platform binding that a protocol has.

Loosely coupled

A consumer of a web service is not tied to that web service directly; the web service interface can change over time without compromising the client's ability to interact with the service. A tightly coupled system implies that the client and server logic are closely tied to one another, implying that if one interface changes, the other must also be updated. Adopting a loosely coupled architecture tends to make software systems more manageable and allows simpler integration between different systems.

Coarse-grained

Object-oriented technologies such as Java expose their services through individual methods. An individual method is too fine an operation to provide any useful capability at a corporate level. Building a Java program from scratch requires the creation of several fine-grained methods that are then composed into a coarse-grained service that is consumed by either a client or another service. Businesses and the interfaces that they expose should be coarse-grained. Web services technology provides a natural way of defining coarse-grained services that access the right amount of business logic.

Ability to be synchronous or asynchronous

Synchronicity refers to the binding of the client to the execution of the service. In synchronous invocations, the client blocks and waits for the service to complete its operation before continuing. Asynchronous operations allow a client to invoke a service and then execute other functions. Asynchronous clients retrieve their result at a later point in time, while synchronous clients receive their result when the service has completed. Asynchronous capability is a key factor in enabling loosely coupled systems.

Supports Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

Web services allow clients to invoke procedures, functions, and methods on remote objects using an XML-based protocol. Remote procedures expose input and output parameters that a web service must support. Component development through Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and .NET Components has increasingly become a part of architectures and enterprise deployments over the past couple of years. Both technologies are distributed and accessible through a variety of RPC mechanisms. A web service supports RPC by providing services of its own, equivalent to those of a traditional component, or by translating incoming invocations into an invocation of an EJB or a .NET component.

Supports document exchange

One of the key advantages of XML is its generic way of representing not only data, but also complex documents. These documents can be simple, such as when representing a current address, or they can be complex, representing an entire book or RFQ. Web services support the transparent exchange of documents to facilitate business integration.

Web Services Technologies

Simple Object Access Protocol

SOAP is a communication protocol which is used to exchange messages between applications over the Internet, irrespective of the platforms and the technology the applications are built on.

Web Service Description Language (WSDL)

WSDL is an XML technology that describes the interface of a web service in a standardized way. WSDL standardizes how a web service represents the input and output parameters of an invocation externally, the function's structure, the nature of the invocation (in only, in/out, etc.), and the service's protocol binding. WSDL allows disparate clients to automatically understand how to interact with a web service.

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)

It is a directory service. Web services can register with a UDDI and make themselves available through it for discovery. UDDI provides a worldwide registry of web services for advertisement, discovery, and integration purposes.