Product DescriptionAs a developer new to Web Services, how do you make sense of this emerging framework so you can start writing your own services today? This concise book gives programmers both a concrete introduction and a handy reference to XML web services, first by explaining the foundations of this new breed of distributed services, and then by demonstrating quick ways to create services with open-source Java tools.
Web Services make it possible for diverse applications to discover each other and exchange data seamlessly via the Internet. For instance, programs written in Java and running on Solaris can find and call code written in C# that run on Windows XP, or programs written in Perl that run on Linux, without any concern about the details of how that service is implemented. A common set of Web Services is at the core of Microsoft's new .NET strategy, Sun Microsystems's Sun One Platform, and the W3C's XML Protocol Activity Group.
In this book, author Ethan Cerami explores four key emerging technologies:
XML Remote Procedure Calls (XML-RPC)
SOAP - The foundation for most commercial Web Services development
Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI)
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
For each of these topics, 'Web Services Essentials 'provides a quick overview, Java tutorials with sample code, samples of the XML documents underlying the service, and explanations of freely-available Java APIs. Cerami also includes a guide to the current state of Web Services, pointers to open-source tools and a comprehensive glossary of terms.
If you want to break through the Web Services hype and find useful information on these evolving technologies, look nofurther than 'Web Services Essentials. '
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Excellent, even though based on old SOAP specification
The O'Reilly series of books on web services, all based on outdated versions of the Apache SOAP (now Axis2) specification, are all very good and still valuable as a means of learning web services programming techniques.
The difficulty for beginners who are trying to learn SOAP or XML-RPC with these books is finding the appropriate jar files that match the SOAP specifications used for the code examples in the books. Using the current Axis2 or early Axis1 version jar files will not permit ... Read More
Rating: - Outdated but still a good overview
This is a well written overview for those that may have missed how Web Services rushed onto the scene earlier in the decade. Being 5 years old now, it is definitely out of date. I consider about 120 of 300 pages useful as an introduction to the subject to a developer who has been working in other technologies. It provides a good overview. The examples provided work well to illustrate the point presented. Keep in mind that the examples are outdated so skip liberally.
After reading/skimming ... Read More
Rating: - Outdated but excellent...
First of all, to clear up someone else's comment:
while the API samples, URLs, etc. in the book are all outdated but even beginners should be able to figure out the updates.
The only word of caution: it does NOT cover REST.
This book provides a wonderful set of core topics and values that are essential to understanding what is currently out there (at the time I'm writing this in close-to-mid 2007, anyway). Providing samples, history and general information on each topic ... Read More
Rating: - Obsolete and belated book
This book is based on obsolete specifications and older SOAP implementation which is not even available for download. The Apache SOAP is already a piece of junk and Apache recommends to use Apache Axis (which is not in the scope of this book). All other implementation examples such as XMethods and UDDI4J are also obsolete as well. The APIs are already deprecated and the code discussed does'nt make any sense.
Rating: - Excellent starting point when dealing with web services
This book is really an excellent one for programmers who want to start with web services. It gives a compact overview of XML-RPC, SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. Especially Java programmers will find some good code listings. But don't expect more than an introduction to web services.
- Excellent, even though based on old SOAP specification
- Outdated but still a good overview
- Obsolete and belated book
