The use of Web services applies to not only IBM-specific solutions, but also opens up real interoperability between disparate platforms, including Microsoft .Net, Sun Open Net Environment (ONE) and a variety of open-source solutions. Any vendor that adheres to the W3C standards and recommendations related to Web services can serve as a provider or consumer of Web services.
The primary technologies utilized by both consumers and providers of Web services include:
- eXtensible Markup Language (XML) - A self-describing, extensible format for encoding data.
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) - A lightweight protocol for exchange of information in a decentralized environment, based on XML. HTTP servers are traditionally utilized as the transport mechanism for SOAP information. However, in theory, SOAP may utilize other transport mechanisms.
- Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is a vendor-neutral, standard directory that contains interface information about registered Web service providers.
- Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is a W3C sanctioned XML format used to describe the nature of published Web services.
The advantages of Web services in any integration framework are many, including:
- Web services are self-contained and abstracted from the implementation layer. Web services deployed on the IBM J2EE WebSphere Application Server platform, for example, will interoperate with Web services deployed on a Microsoft .Net platform.
- Since Web services are deployed using XML, messages sent to and from a Web services server are self-describing and can be easily parsed in any language with readily available code libraries.
- Web services can encapsulate existing business objects, including EJBs, JavaBeans, or DCOM objects, and there are readily available tools that easily encapsulate business object entities in a Web services wrapper.