Chapter 1. Introduction

Today, the principal use of the World Wide Web is for interactive access to documents and applications. In almost all cases, such access is by human users, typically working through Web browsers, audio players, or other interactive front-end systems. The Web can grow significantly in power and scope if it is extended to support communication between applications,from one program to another.

From the W3C XML ProtocolWorking Group Charter

Welcome to the world of web services. This chapter will ground you in the basics of web service terminology and architecture. It does so by answering the most common questions, including:

  • What exactly is a web service?

  • What is the web service protocol stack?

  • What is XML messaging? Service description? Service discovery?

  • What are XML-RPC, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI? How do these technologies complement each other and work together?

  • What security issues are unique to web services?

  • What standards currently exist?

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