An Introduction to Web Services

Application frameworks for distributive computing over the Internet are generally made up of object models that are inseparable from messaging protocols. This forces developers to adopt an “all or nothing” stance when picking which distributed protocol to use. Conversely, the World Wide Web is a loosely designed distributive system which has seen rapid adoption by end users, but poor integration with applications due to the lack of well defined interfaces and workflow languages. Web services are the convergence of these two areas, and provide a platform and implementation-neutral way of doing distributive computing while leveraging lessons learned from the World Wide Web. This paper introduces web services and the specifications that deal with them, and provides an initial report on how web services are being used within the I-Help project. General Terms Design, Standardization.