A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It includes self-describing software modules, semantically encapsulating discrete functionality, wrapped in and accessible via standard Internet communication protocols like XML and SOAP.Web services are revolutionizing how applications talk to other applications by providing a universal data format that lets data be easily adapted or transformed. Based on XML, web services can communicate across platforms and operating systems, regardless of the programming language in which the applications are written. Each web service is a discrete unit of code that handles a limited set of tasks and they can loosely link themselves into a collaborating group that performs a particular task.
