What Is A Web Service?
A web service is a software 'function' that can be accessed by another application over the
Internet.
Prior to web services, integrating remotely located applications was complex and involved proprietary
interfaces. Developers had to spend hours digging into hundreds of pages of documentation, learning about
protocols, agreeing on ways to communicate, and debugging code back and forth between application teams
before they could get two programs to talk to one another.
With web services, all this went away. A developer writing an application in Visual Basic in Singapore
can access functionality delivered by another application written in Java located in Paris as easily as
if these functions were all running on a single desktop. Work that used to take weeks can now be done in
minutes. Using a web service can only takes two lines of code.
What defines a web service?
Web services were enabled by the introduction and broad adoption of three related World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) standards:
XML,
SOAP, and
WSDL (pronounced 'Wisdle').
'Web Service' can be a confusing term because it is so generic. After all, many people and companies
provide 'services' over the Web. But only those 'functions' that support the three standards
above are true 'Web Services'.
Why are web services important?
Web services could become the greatest invention since the hyperlink. They could have the same impact on how companies do business as the ability to navigate the web (using HTML hyperlinks) changed our individual lives.
Imagine a world where IT organizations are able to build and adapt business applications as easily you can browse the web for answers? These businesses would be swift, responsive, and able to serve their customers better. Well, just like the web put rivers of information within a mouse click reach of everyone, web services make mountains of re-usable functionality available with two lines of code.
How are web services used in the real world?
Application opportunities for web services are plentiful. Here are some examples:
- A publicly listed company uses web services to obtain the stock quotes, charts, news and real-time SEC filings to show in the Investor Relations section of its web site.
- An accounting system uses web services to obtain the currency exchange rates to feed into their system for calculation and report generation.
- An ecommerce company uses web services to obtain current sales tax rates and to validate credit cards before a transaction takes place.
Is a web service the right solution for you?
Xignite web services are used to power applications that require access to financial market data or functionality. If you need to display or use financial market data in an application or if you need to provide such data to an application on an ongoing basis, then our web services are definitely for you.