Web services provide a standard means of interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Web services are characterized by their great interoperability and extensibility, as well as their machine-processable descriptions thanks to the use of XML. They can be combined in a loosely coupled way in order to achieve complex operations. Programs providing simple services can interact with each other in order to deliver sophisticated added-value services
An overview of the Web Services Inspection Language(Web Services tutorial)Service discovery defines a process for locating service providers and retrieving service description documents, and is a key component of the overall Web services model. Service discovery is a very broad concept, which means that it is unlikely to have one solution that addresses all of its requirements. The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) specification addresses a subset of the overall requirements by using a centralized service discovery model. This article provides an overview of the Web Services Inspection Language (WS-Inspection), another related service discovery mechanism that addresses a different subset of requirements using a distributed usage model. The WS-Inspection specification is designed around an XML-based model for building an aggregation of references to existing Web service descriptions, which are exposed using standard Web server technology.
This is an update to the Web Services Inspection Language (WS-Inspection) overview article which was orginally published in November, 2001. In addition to an overview of the Web Services Inspection Language, this paper describes how WS-Inspection documents are being used and offers details on the recent contribution of WSIL4J to the Apache Software Foundation Full Article Web services networks(Web Services tutorial) In much the same way as overnight delivery services do, a Web service can act as a go-between for different companies working together, which can thereby help them do their business more efficiently. This context for Web services, however, is not without its complexities that go beyond just the business issues of getting multiple organizations to work together. Kelly Truelove explores the potential -- and the potential problems -- of using Web services as intermediaries. Full Article The IDL That Isn't(Web Services tutorial) When you listen to someone explaining Web Services, it's not unusual to hear WSDL compared to the Interface Definition Languages (IDLs) used by classic RPC mechanisms like DCE, ONC, CORBA, and COM. All of these technologies use IDL of one form or another to define contracts between components. In all of these cases, use of an IDL was the key to interoperability across language, process, and vendor boundaries. WSDL is exactly like the IDLs of the past in that a WSDL document describes the portTypes or interfaces a web service implements. However, there is one critical difference between WSDL and the IDLs distributed systems developers know and love: no one wants to use WSDL as a starting point. This is a critical problem that will plague the web service movement until it is solved. Let us explain why Full Article |
XML Tutorials 
