Web Services refers to the application services which is served on internet through websites allowing machine to machine interaction. It integrates various aspects of web application such as XML messaging service (to tag the data), SOAP (transfer the data), WSDL (service description) & UDDL (listing service availability). Irrespective of OS or programming language, web services allow interaction of one program with another like JAVA can interact with perl and windows application can talk with UNIX. Web services are updated from of Electronic data interchange and it requires Internet for direct application to application interaction.
The main purpose of using web services is to exchange data between different software platforms. It’s characteristics are defined as
- System to system interactions
- Interoperability
- Independent platform and Operating System
- Language independence
- Architecture based on World Wide Web
The main components of web services are
SOAP (simple object access protocol)
SOAP is XML based protocol used for sharing information between two or more systems. It is platform and language independent, use as a communication protocol and is specifically designed to communicate over internet.
WSDL (web services description language)
It is created by Microsoft and IBM meant for information exchange in distributed environment. WSDL is also a XML-based language and it guides how to access the web services.
UDDI (universal description, discovery & integration)
It is developed to definite the set of services that are both publicly available and services within the organization. It contains XML based registry that helps businesses find other internet based services. It is platform independent and uses WSDL to connect to other web services.
Benefits of web services
There are several key benefits of using web services which are helpful to organizations of all sizes.
Low cost for communication
Compare to other methods like EDI and B2B, web services save lot of time and money as it uses SOAP over HTTP. It acts as an automatic dictionary which helps businesses to have correct information about other service providers. It increases visibility of your business among customers thereby helps in increasing your business revenues.
Interoperability
A web service is virtual platform that allows exchange of application data and services among other applications. For example a web application developed in Java or Perl can exchange or talk to web service of another web based platform.
Standardized protocol
Web services is based on standard protocol for communication and all four layers uses well defined protocols (service transport, XML messaging, service description & service discovery). Standardization has many advantages as it reduce the cost due to competition, thus increase the quality and provide wide range of choice.
Re-usability
Web services provide flexibility to modify and reprogram of particular model of application as per requirement to serve new and different services. The component of a web service used in website can be used in other services with few changes.