W3C defines a web service as "a software application that can be
identified by a URI and has an interface that defined, described, and
understood by XML and also supports direct interaction with software applications
another using XML based messages via internet protocol "
Web service is a software application that is not affected by the platform, he
will provide methods that can be accessed by the network. He will also
using XML for data exchange, especially on the two business entities
different.
Some characteristics of the web service is:
- Message-based
- Standards-based
- Programming language independent
- Platform-neutral
Some of the key standard in the web service are: XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is an XML-based mark-up language
to change messages between applications. Useful as a SOAP envelope
used for exchanging data objects within the network. SOAP defines
four aspects in the communication: Message envelope, encoding, RPC call convention,
, and how to unite a message within the protocol transport.
A SOAP message consists of SOAP Envelop and can consist of attachments or
do not have attachments. SOAP envelop is composed of the SOAP header and SOAP body,
SOAP attachments, while allowing non-XML data to be inserted into
SOAP message, in-encoded, and placed into the SOAP message with
using the MIME-multipart.