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...Review: The Big Picture


Notes:

What is important to notice in the previously mentioned scenarios is that with Web Services disparate programs and systems can dynamically find and connect to each other. Up to now, typically, if we wanted to connect different systems we would need the help of a programmer to first study the interfaces of the systems to be connected. The programmer would then write some custom adaptor code to enable the systems to communicate. In the process, the programmer may, possibly, feel the need to install some additional software to make the solution work. Needless to say this adaptor code would be, most likely, specific for the two systems in question and therefore not generally reusable. Web Services allows us to eliminate all such adaptor code and steps and make the whole connection process at runtime and completely automated.
All this is possible as long as systems expose their APIs as Web Services, make their interfaces visible through WSDL and readily available in a repository (UDDI).
Since all interfaces and data are in XML it becomes relatively easy for systems to find each other and automatically invoke each other’s function.
Contrast this with today’s situation where some interfaces are described in IDL, others in DCOM interfaces, or SQL, etc.