Understanding XML Web Services

Summary

This chapter exposed you to the core building blocks of .NET web services. The chapter began by examining the core namespaces (and core types in these namespaces) used during web service development. As you learned, web services developed using the .NET platform require little more than applying the [WebMethod] attribute to each member you wish to expose from the XML web service type. Optionally, your types may derive from System.Web.Services.WebService to obtain access to the Application and Session properties (among other things). This chapter also examined three key related technologies: a lookup mechanism (UDDI), a description language (WSDL), and a wire protocol (GET, POST, or SOAP).

Once you have created any number of [WebMethod]-enabled members, you can interact with a web service through an intervening proxy. The wsdl.exe utility generates such a proxy, which can be used by the client like any other C# type. As an alternative to the wsdl.exe command-line tool, Visual Studio 2005 offers similar functionality via the Add Web Reference dialog box.