Web Services (Cont.)

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Web services can convert your application into a web-application, which can publish its function or message to the rest of the world. Web services are main building blocks in the Microsoft .NET programming model:

• 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.
• XML is the basis for web services.

How Does It Work?
The basic web services platform is XML + HTTP. XML provides a language which can be used between different platforms and programming languages and still express complex messages and functions. The HTTP protocol is the most used Internet protocol. Web services platform elements include:

• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol),
• UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), and
• WSDL (Web Services Description Language).

Web Services Have Two Types of Uses.

• Reusable application-components: There are things applications need very often. So why make these over and over again? Web services can offer application-components like: currency conversion, weather reports, or even language translation as services.


• 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.