Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter IV.5. Web Services

Web services are commonly used on networks to transfer data between computers. An application sends a request, and the Web service answers with the required data. The biggest usage is on the biggest network — the Internet. However, Web services can also be used to pass data on networks internal to a company.

SQL Server 2008 can easily be configured to directly serve data as a Web service. A benefit of providing data this way is that the code can be embedded in an application (such as a Windows application or a Web application) and ran on one computer, while the data is retrieved from the SQL Server on a completely separate system.

In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft deprecated the usage of Native XML Web Services. Deprecated does not mean that the services are not supported, but it does mean that support may become an issue in future SQL Server releases. Steering clear of the feature in new development projects (and modifying applications that currently use it) is a good idea. Native XML Web Services may be in use in existing projects however, so you may want to make modifications to the code in the short term as you plan for switching the code to ASP.NET over the longer haul.