In the last exciting episode,
jo*************@yahoo.com (jm) wrote:
I understand how an XML formatted SOAP message is used to request
items from a web service and how the XML formatted SOAP response is
used. I am still missing the big picture, however.
When is this used?
For example, let's say that I have three systems.
An Oracle system, SQL Server 2000 system and a DB2 legacy system.
Why would web services be better than simply using an scripting page
over HTTP to bring back the data? So, I could use ASP.NET to hit all
three databases and and bring them back on a single page, seamless to
the end user. For that matter, an individual page could be used for
each system (if the data were unrelated for example).
What am I missing here? How would Web Services help me? I know it
would; I just can't picture it.
Web Services is NOT about "web pages;" it is much more analagous to a
(dumbed-down) version of CORBA.
If you have interfaces to Oracle/SQL Server/DB/2 that you're happy
with, then SOAP may not provide anything of value to you. It's sure
to be less efficient than the "native" DB interfaces.
Web Services would be valuable if you wanted to be able to publish a
single seemingly-seamless API for _other_ people to use to access the
data. If that "unification" isn't so valuable that you can live with
the loss of efficiency involved in a heavyweight protocol like SOAP,
then it may not really be a help to you.
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