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Web Services

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wave-of-the-future dept.

Erik Sliman writes "Why are all the IT companies suddenly interested in open standards with web services? An OpenStandards.net article explores the issues surrounding the somewhat vague term."

5 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Simply put... by gUmbi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Simply put, Web services is SOAP and UDDI. SOAP is like RPC, UDDI is like LDAP. There is nothing really new here.

    The reason it is becoming popular is:
    A) it uses XML for procedure calls and it has a big-fat standard for type-mapping so it's not tied to a specific language or language-binding.
    B) It can piggy-back on HTTP so it works through firewalls.

    Web Services may have some issues when network/security administrators figure out people will be using RPC through the firewall.

    Jason.

  2. SOAP != HTTP (necessarily) by oops · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's a common assumption that SOAP is only transported via HTTP.

    From the Apache SOAP faq

    The writers of the SOAP 1.1 protocol [http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/] note that: 'SOAP can potentially be used in combination with a variety of other protocols; however, the only bindings defined in this document describe how to use SOAP in combination with HTTP and HTTP Extension Framework'.

    eg. you can transport SOAP via SMTP.

  3. FYI: SOAP is not transport/port specific by e2d2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    FYI: SOAP can be used on ports other than just 80 and used by transport protocols other than HTTP/HTTPS such as SMTP, FTP, Jabber, and BEEP:

    http://www.pocketsoap.com/specs/smtpbinding/
    ht tp://beepcore.org/beepcore/beep-soap.jsp
    http://x ml.apache.org/axis/
    http://mailman.jabber.org/pip ermail/rpc-jig/2001-O ctober/000016.html

    Just a few links but you can search www.google.com and get an idea of what SOAP really entails.

  4. stupidest argument ever by mikemulvaney · · Score: 3, Informative

    You don't have to run SOAP services on port 80. If you need to protect them with a firewall, then you should probably run them on some other port.

    SOAP isn't any different from CGI. I'm posting this message in a web browser, and it is going to port 80. The horror! If slashdot ran a SOAP service, you could write other clients to do the same thing. Instead of posting to 'postcomment.pl?subject=stupidest+argument+ever&co ntent=...' or whatever, it would encode that stuff in XML and send it to a SOAP proxy.

    That's all SOAP is. You can just relax about the use of HTTP. I don't understand why people see something like this, and immediately react with hysterics.

    -Mike

  5. Congratulations by CoreyG · · Score: 3, Informative

    Your understanding of XML, "...XML is nothing more than formatted text -- utterly devoid of value until two or more parties agree on a shared vocabulary (in the form of a DTD or Schema" is exactly what XML is defined to be. See? Point #2 is probably the most appropriate here.