Web Services

Web Services

Group 3

Casey Bauer, Mary Daniel, William Hunter, Hannah McMahon, John Walls

Key Words: Web Services, XML, Interoperability, Application, WSE 3.0

Web services are a standardized way for multiple machines to communicate via Web-based applications using Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol

(SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI). (Webopedia.com, Web Services, 2006.) The combination of these processes provide Web services with a reliable and user-friendly way for different computers to communicate and transfer information across the Internet. With an increase in application use among companies, Web services provide an attractive advantage to companies who are in need of a more reliable source of transfer and communication information. Companies that have used Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the past for the transfer of business transactions may have realized now that Web services have taken their place in developing business applications. Web services however are the new norm for businesses to communicate with each other and their clients. This will allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other’s IT systems. (Webopedia.com, Web Services, 2006.) Web services provide an upgrade over EDI’s by providing interoperability between software applications and different platforms while integrating the different service applications that companies use. The goal of Web service developers is to provide a community where “applications are on demand” via the Internet and see a decline in the use of a client/sever network to access applications. (Eisner, 2006.)

The importance of a Web service is measured by how they directly affect the businesses that use them and the effect Web services have on their daily activities. Software applications and Web services have become increasingly combined by exchanging data over computer networks like the Internet in a manner similar to inter-process communications on a single computer. (Wikipedia.org, 2006.) Since the beginning of Web services, changes have been made to make the accessibility and performance better than previous versions. Various companies have seen slow “turn-around” and “transfer” times when it comes to using applications to perform business transactions. Along with Microsoft’s development of Web Service Enhancements (WSE) 3.0, which is a continuation of WSE 2.0, developers are becoming more aware of the magnitude that a web service can have on a business. With the Internet becoming more important in business transactions, web services have now developed an application-to-application form of communication. An application-to-application communication has the ability to “enable such tasks as allowing one application to tell another application on a network that a business needs to reload its inventory.” (Boulton, 2004.) When companies use Web services as a form of business communication, it creates timesaving possibilities by allowing personnel to focus on other needs instead of needs for application processing.

Application-to-application communication is not the only area Web services will have a communications affect on. Some Web services provide a peer-to-peer (P2P) arrangement that allows its users to access Web services without having to access a central server. (Whatis.com, 2006.) P2P is best explained through the possibility of a P2P version of eBay that processes the auctioning items. (Glass, 2000.) The actual “auction” is the Web service application provided by eBay, which allows eBay to not require a server. As technologies are continuously developed, there lies the possibility that, using the eBay Web service as an example, multiple web services could combine to provide a user with information from multiple Web services. This combination of multiple Web services to form one application is known as a mash-up. Mash-ups are the future of Web services as they mix two or more different services from disparate and even competing web sites. (Webopedia.com, 2006.) The future of Web services is best presented in the direction of the possibilities that mash-ups can have on an Internet business. On the Internet now, there are multiple Web services that can assist a user in finding specific information—shipment tracking, maps, payments, auction information, etc. Mash-ups have the ability to combine multiple sites that may have slightly or drastically different information available for users to access.

Web services also take on the approach of being “an open distributed system.” This gives businesses and consumers the ability to create their applications and make those applications available to the public quickly. (Glass, 2000.) What makes Web services important to the new line of distributed systems is their interoperability, their ability to be present anywhere (also referred to as ubiquity), low barriers to entry, and support by the industry. The interoperability is present with the open distributed system that allows for Java and Python, or Microsoft Windows and Linux applications to operate without any extra effort needed by the user. (Wikipedia.org, 2006.) The ubiquity of Web services represents the ability for one company’s Web service to interact with another company’s web service regardless of what language the application may need. With Web services providing an increased level interoperability, there will no longer be a language barrier between different companies Web services. To solve this problem, XML and HTTP are functions of Web services that help different Web services communicate. In addition to easier use among consumers, Web services have a low barrier to entry and increased industry support.

Internet business has provided Web services with endless possibilities. With the Internet becoming more of a necessity in the business world rather than a commodity, the importance of Web services will continue to grow. With an increased use of application-to-application communication, Web services have gained the attention of multiple companies as more of an improvement to their businesses and also as a major party in the next evolution of the Web. (Webopedia.com, Understanding Web Services, 2005.)

Web services have taken parts from previous data and information transfer applications to develop a community where they will be part of everyday life. Businesses will benefit from the enhancements made by Web services by reducing the personnel would are responsible monitoring Web services and also creating a more reliable way for data transfer. Consumers using Google.com, Yahoo!, PayPal, eBay, and Amazon.com will experience the same benefits as their application needs will be met and continued to grow. As Web services continue to expand by building from previous failures and learning a better development from those failures, an application can be created that assists users in ways never before possible on the Internet environment.

References

Boulton, Clint, (November 29, 2004). Web Services Now and When.

Retrieved April 11, 2006, from

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.pgp/3441211.

Eisner, Adam, (May 28, 2002). Web Services Important Part of Automation’s Future.

Retrieved April 11, 2006, from http://www.thewhir.com/features/web-services.cfm.

Glass, Graham, (November 1, 2000). The Web Services Evolution.

Retrieved April 11, 2006, from

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-peer1.html.

Webopedia.com, (October 11, 2005). Web Services.

Retrieved April 11, 2006, from

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_services.html