Chapter 10. XML and Web Services

Web Services is the buzz word that's making the rounds these days, and, in a way, it's probably the main reason you're reading this book at all. As you've seen, there are tons of XML support built into .NET, and it's all usable in any number of ways. But one of the ultimate goals of .NET's XML support is to enable Web Services.

Web Services is a framework for building distributed applications. That means that Web Services, by itself, is not a distributed application, but it provides a mechanism by which you can implement a distributed application.

I sometimes have trouble deciding whether the term Web Services is singular or plural. I'll generally use the plural "Web Services," capitalized, as if it were singular, when I'm referring to the concept or mechanism, and the singular "web service," in lower case, when I'm talking about a particular application.

I don't have room here to give a thorough explanation of building a distributed application using Web Services. However, what I can do is provide an overview of the concept, show you the XML schemas behind it, and demonstrate how you can use the .NET Framework to deal with those schemas.