Why Web services will be a big deal

Web Author: David Coursey
Date: February 21, 2002

Objective

What is this thing when Microsoft, IBM and Sun agree to use something to change the status quo? Actually, they've done it.
。 The black Trio in the computer field suddenly banded together, at least for their recent goals. They put an idea in their head to the poor consumers and sell their Web services.

I'm not sure when all of the pilot lights in the software industry suddenly hit a point-especially if it's not a response to the obvious user needs, which is Web services.

If a company tries to sell something you don't know, it's usually wishful thinking. But Web services can be an exception. That's because they're built on things we already know about (Internet and component-based programming, for example) to solve some real problems and create new opportunities.

What to do and why.
The question is: how do you get applications to talk to each other over the Internet?

So why do you want them to have a conversation? Perhaps this is done so that an application that needs to know a particular commodity price within the company can automatically ask a supplier's computer to obtain this information in real time
。

Or maybe your company is a car rental company, and you need to allow all airlines to access your taxi booking system. Or you have a Web site that wants all mobile phones and wireless PDAs to be able to download the content of your site without having to care that the devices are completely different.

Today, the solution to all these problems is to design specific programs for specific requirements. Data interchange for each supplier, airline and mobile phone or wireless device may be different. With all these complexities in mind, most of these problems have not been addressed, resulting in a significant loss of the efficiency of software delivery.

WEB services solves this problem by creating a set of ways to standardize communications, making it easier for applications and devices to share data on the front and back over the Internet.


Demo Example
Here's a very simple example of a Web service that I created in a Microsoft-sponsored Web Services Workgroup
。

What we want to do is to enter some data on a Windows computer and add them separately by another computer and find out the sum, and then it will add results. We use a Linux computer on the Internet to do the addition work.

First, we create a simple Windows application to enter the numbers we want to add, and then format them so that Linux programs-that is, Web services-can understand and process them. The client then figured out how to display the results generated on the Linux platform.

We click the button now and the number to add is sent to the Linux computer, where our newly created Web service adds them up and returns them to the Windows computer, and this Windows computer knows how to display the results. All of this works because some of the standards that have been established can tell the computer how to communicate.

Because on the Internet, a Linux computer should know how to provide the same Web service to any client computer--or even any other computer program--that requires the addition of our services. You can change this feature to something more important than simple math calculations, and it will become very powerful.

Sharing applications
Web services are about programming the use of the Web for information access: A framework that provides a common solution for complex tasks
。 Just as the Web solves the problem of finding and displaying information--thanks to the common language Html--web service, which enables applications to advertise themselves and do some work for all who can reach them over the Internet.

This idea of application sharing is not a new idea, at least not entirely new. A service called time sharing, where a commercial company can lease computing time on a mainframe, was a big business. It is also the predecessor of an ASP or application service provider.

Instead of sharing an application, you have two or more applications that communicate and collaborate over the network with Web services. The Web service may even contain only the component parts of the application.

Why is this promising technology known as a Web service? Because the way applications communicate with each other is by using the HTTP protocol that the web has used earlier. This means that the application can communicate in a similar way to HTML authoring Web pages. The communication language of a WEB service is called XML.

Explanation of the vocabulary list
The problem with writing an article about Web services is that the topic quickly becomes more complex
。 Think about what you need to read this article: I need to know how to write an article and must know the language you understand. I also need a way to tell you that you can get this information.

Then I need a way to send this message, and then you need a way to access and display this information in your backend application. Of course you have to be able to read everything that appears on your screen.

In real life, the process looks pretty simple, but it's because there are countless standards at work. WEB services use some of the standards that already exist, while others are largely established, and some standards are created. So don't feel stupid when you see some familiar or unfamiliar language and abbreviations, such as UDDI, XML, soap, and other words of web services.

The explanation of the glossary is very important. The reason: This is what historians and Seers call "inflection points," which refer to the moment when important things arise and change other things.

Web services may dramatically change the way applications run and develop, just as the web changes the way we access and share information and even changes our business and shopping practices.

If you want to know the future proof of this point, please keep an eye on our website. In Wednesday, Bill Gates introduced Microsoft's latest version of the flagship development tool, Visual Studio.NET, in San Francisco to help developers create these Web services.

I'll take a look at what Bill will say-and then look back at the technology that has so much potential that makes it a rare alliance for the biggest companies in the computer field.