What is a Web service

Web service is a way of communication that allows interoperability between different applications on different platforms, for example, a java based application on Windows can communicate with a .Net based one on Linux. The communication can be done through a set of XML messages over HTTP protocol.

Web services are browsers and operating system independent service, which means it can run on any browser without the need of making any changes.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has defined the web services. According to W3C, “Web Services are the message-based design frequently found on the Web and in enterprise software. The Web of Services is based on technologies such as HTTP, XML, SOAP, WSDL, SPARQL, and others.”

Types of web services

WSDL

• WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language
• WSDL is an XML-based language for describing Web services.
• WSDL is a W3C recommendation

SOAP

• SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol
• SOAP is an XML based protocol for accessing Web Services.
• SOAP is based on XML
• SOAP is a W3C recommendation

UDDI

• UDDI stands for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
• UDDI is a directory service where companies can search for Web services.
• UDDI is described in WSDL
• UDDI communicates via SOAP

RDF

• RDF stands for Resource Description Framework
• RDF is a framework for describing resources on the web
• RDF is written in XML
• RDF is a W3C Recommendation