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Chapter 6: Web Services Design and Practice

Overview

You have probably heard about Web services—you may have even already read a lot about them. Today nearly every published computer book has something to say about Web services, and this book is no exception. So, what are Web services? Web services are, by rough definition, functions that serve someone else with information of any kind. This may sound vague, but we will try to explain and exemplify this definition in this chapter. Figure 6-1 shows an overview of Web services.

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Figure 6-1: Web services environment

Unfortunately, most of the current publications and coverage of Web services just tell you how wonderful Web services are, and do not clearly explain why you should use them. In this chapter, we will focus on two things: explaining what Web services are and why you should use them. We will also show you scenarios for which you should use Web services and scenarios for which you should not use them. In addition to this, we also will explore the different components and specifications necessary for you to create a complete Web service.

First, we will look at where Web services fit in the application design of today. It is very important to uncover the areas where using Web services can ease the burden of integrating different kinds of systems on different platforms, thereby reducing the costs of implementation and maintenance. It also shows you what you need from a Web service, and where problems might occur in using such a service.


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