“Then e-businesses wanted to integrate their processes with
other e-businesses, so the Service Web was created. The Service Web
is powered by Web application servers that speak Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP), and deliver information marked up in
Extensible Markup Language (XML). Today, the Service Web is in its
adolescence. We are currently witnessing the rapid maturation and
deployment of a stack of interrelated standards that are defining
the infrastructure for the Service Web.“The building block of the Service Web is the Web service, a set
of related application functions that can be programmatically
invoked over the Internet. The information that an application must
have in order to programmatically invoke a Web service is given by
a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document. WSDL documents
can be indexed in searchable Universal Description, Discovery, and
Integration (UDDI) Business Registries so that developers and
applications can locate Web services.“This article describes the Service Web, outlines the key
standards of SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI, and discusses new tools for
developing Web services. Armed with this information, you should be
able to understand how Web services can enhance your business and
how you can begin developing them…”