Friday, 12 December 2014

Web Service Components


Web Service Components

There are three major web service components.
  1. SOAP
  2. WSDL
  3. UDDI

SOAP

SOAP is an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol.
SOAP is a XML-based protocol for accessing web services.
SOAP is a W3C recommendation for communication between applications.
SOAP is XML based, so it is platform independent and language independent. In other words, it can be used with Java, .Net or PHP language on any platform.

WSDL

WSDL is an acronym for Web Services Description Language.
WSDL is a xml document containing information about web services such as method name, method parameter and how to access it.
WSDL is a part of UDDI. It acts as a interface between web service applications.
WSDL is pronounced as wiz-dull.

UDDI

UDDI is an acronym for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration.
UDDI is a XML based framework for describing, discovering and integrating web services.
UDDI is a directory of web service interfaces described by WSDL, containing information about web services.

SOAP Web Services

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is a XML-based protocol for accessing web services.
SOAP is a W3C recommendation for communication between two applications.
SOAP is XML based protocol. It is platform independent and language independent. By using SOAP, you will be able to interact with other programming language applications.

Advantages of Soap Web Services

WS Security: SOAP defines its own security known as WS Security.
Language and Platform independent: SOAP web services can be written in any programming language and executed in any platform.

Disadvantages of Soap Web Services

Slow: SOAP uses XML format that must be parsed to be read. It defines many standards that must be followed while developing the SOAP applications. So it is slow and consumes more bandwidth and resource.
WSDL dependent: SOAP uses WSDL and doesn't have any other mechanism to discover the service.

RESTful Web Services

REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer.
REST is an architectural style not a protocol.

Advantages of RESTful Web Services

Fast: RESTful Web Services are fast because there is no strict specification like SOAP. It consumes less bandwidth and resource.
Language and Platform independent: RESTful web services can be written in any programming language and executed in any platform.
Can use SOAP: RESTful web services can use SOAP web services as the implementation.
Permits different data format: RESTful web service permits different data format such as Plain Text, HTML, XML and JSON.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service Oriented Architecture or SOA is a design pattern. It is designed to provide services to other applications through protocol. It is a concept only and not tied to any programming language or platform.
Web services is a technology of SOA most likely.

Service

A service is well-defined, self-contained function that represents unit of functionality. A service can exchange information from another service. It is not dependent on the state of another service.

Service Connections

The figure given below illustrates the service oriented architecture. Service consumer sends service request to the service provider and service provider sends the service response to the service consumer. The service connection is understandable to both service consumer and service provider.
SOA Connections


SOAP vs REST Web Services
There are many differences between SOAP and REST web services. The important 10 differences between SOAP and REST are given below:
No.
SOAP
REST
1)
SOAP is a protocol.
REST is an architectural style.
2)
SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.
REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer.
3)
SOAP can't use REST because it is a protocol.
REST can use SOAP web services because it is a concept and can use any protocol like HTTP, SOAP.
4)
SOAP uses services interfaces to expose the business logic.
REST uses URI to expose business logic.
5)
JAX-WS is the java API for SOAP web services.
JAX-RS is the java API for RESTful web services.
6)
SOAP defines standards to be strictly followed.
REST does not define too much standards like SOAP.
7)
SOAP requires more bandwidth and resource than REST.
REST requires less bandwidth and resource than REST.
8)
SOAP defines its own security.
RESTful web services inherits security measures from the underlying transport.
9)
SOAP permits XML data format only.
REST permits different data format such as Plain text, HTML, XML, JSON etc.
10)
SOAP is less preferred than REST.
REST more preferred than SOAP.


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