Chapter 2. XML—The Backbone of Web Services

 

Tell me, tell me if anything got finished.

 
 --Leonardo da Vinci

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is what makes Web services possible. Everything to do with today’s Web services are based, one way or another, on XML. The link between XML and Web services is inextricable and incontrovertible. All data transfer to or from a Web service always has to be in the form of an XML document. That is a given. The input parameters to a Web service are thus structured and defined using XML, as is the output generated by a Web service. In addition, the input/output operations of a Web service, which are implemented in the form of a remote procedure call mechanism, are realized using an XML-based messaging scheme—namely, ...

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