Re: Web Service Definition [Was "Some Thoughts ..."]

On Friday, February 22, 2002, at 02:46 PM, Champion, Mike wrote:
> OK, but if we *define* a "web service" as something that uses WSDL to 
> define
> the contract, a lot of people are going to be unhappy!  Also, there's 
> the
> matter that WSDL is merely an industry consortium proposal and the W3C
> working group is just getting underway.

I've formulated my own slightly skewed definition of a web service:

A Web Service is a CGI program that exposes some type of an interface 
contract.  How that CGI program operates, the protocol that it uses, the 
interface language that it exposes, or who it hangs out with after 
school, are not the concern of a web services architecture.  Any 
existing CGI could potentially qualify as a web service, including those 
programs that return content other than XML (like images, HTML pages, 
streaming media, or other binary content).  As such, we should also not 
assume that the invoking context is going to be XML content...  
Typically, a query string will suffice.  If you make a parameterized 
request, and are greeted with data that has been dynamically tailored to 
your request, you are, in effect, using a web service.

--
Tom Bradford - http://www.tbradford.org
Architect - XQRL (XQuery Engine) - http://www.xqrl.com
Apache Xindice (Native XML Database) - http://xml.apache.org
Project Labrador (Web Services Framework) - http://notdotnet.org

Received on Friday, 22 February 2002 18:19:56 UTC