Web Services Basic

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Web Services Platform Elements

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Web Services have three basic platform elements: SOAP, WSDL and UDDI.

What is SOAP?

SOAP is an XML-based protocol to let applications exchange information over HTTP.

Or more simple: SOAP is a protocol for accessing a Web Service.

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol
SOAP is a communication protocol
SOAP is a format for sending messages
SOAP is designed to communicate via Internet
SOAP is platform independent
SOAP is language independent
SOAP is based on XML
SOAP is simple and extensible
SOAP allows you to get around firewalls
SOAP is a W3C standard

What is WSDL?

WSDL is an XML-based language for locating and describing Web services.

WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language
WSDL is based on XML
WSDL is used to describe Web services
WSDL is used to locate Web services
WSDL is a W3C standard

What is UDDI?

UDDI is a directory service where companies can register and search for Web services.

UDDI stands for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
UDDI is a directory for storing information about web services
UDDI is a directory of web service interfaces described by WSDL
UDDI communicates via SOAP
UDDI is built into the Microsoft .NET platform

Read more about UDDI in our WSDL Tutorial.