Introduction to Web Services in C#

The Web Services in C# is defined as web-based functionality that uses the web protocols that can be further used by web applications. The literal meaning of web service is defined as any software that is present on the internet and uses the XML message system for further processing. The XML is the language that is used for encoding communications related to web service. The web services are distributed, modular, self-contained that helps in product development. There are different standards used by web services like XML, HTTP, HTML, JAVA, and TCP/IP.

Technology use for Web Services

There is various type of technology that is used in creating web services. Some of the technologies are listed down:

1. WEB

The web is defined as an information system that is a large interconnected system. On the web there are different types of information present on the website that contain multimedia, text, and pictures. And for accessing all this information the user needs to use browsers like Firefox, internet explorer, google chrome, and many more. The search engine index the websites so that the user can access these sites and access the information available on the website. The most used search engine is Google, Yahoo, and Msn. For accessing any type of website, the browser needs to be used. The web services are also hosted on the webserver. The web services can be directly accessed by the program and there is no need of using the browser.

2. XML

The full form of XML is (Extension markup language). In XML language tags are used for structuring the document. The tags used in XML can also be made customized. The document contains a different pieces of information using tags. The main use of XML is when we need to do application to application type communication. The feature offered by XML that is transformability is used by the web services for building the portals. The multichannel portal type applications can be easily created in the XML platform.

3. SOA

The full form of SOA is service-oriented architecture. In this there is a proper well-established pattern. Every pattern in this architecture defined one separate service, advertising service, and communication with service. The patterns used in this architecture are used by the web services and all the client applications are directly connected to service using patterns. In the SOA architecture there is one service provider, service consumer, and service broker. The service provider is responsible for providing service, the service consumer is responsible to consume service, and the service broker is responsible for the discovery process and advertises the process.

Limitation for the Web Services

The web services offered by the ASP.NET framework is very easily accessible and can be used. As the SOAP protocol is used for the development of web services. But there are certain limitations in web services.

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There are a few limitations that are mentioned below:

1. Availability

As when the user uses the internet services and access the website but it is not possible that a website will always be available. For web services also, it is not possible that web services are always available for the clients. So, there is a need for some mechanism so that transactions can be retry after some time and web services.

2. Requirements

When any type of web service is created the first need to be done is requirement analysis. And when the web service is created it is not possible that all requirements are fulfilled. The aim of creating web service is ”one service many customers” and when every customer has different requirements from the web service side it creates limitations for web service to fulfill all requirements.

3. No callback flow

When the web services are accessible by the client the web service gives the call back to the client and then the client needs to handle the HTTP request incoming from web service. But there is no client type system implement in this manner thus callbacks do not receive. When the client requires callback from web service, methods need to be exposed by server and client in which the client will send the request to the server and determine the event occurrence.

4. No transactions

As the SOAP protocol is used for creating web services there is no support for doing the transactions. The method in web-service is responsible for creating the new transaction, but it is not possible to enlist the existing transactions.

5. Exception return as a SOAP fault

In the web-method call there is the possibility of some error and in that situation the SOAP faults are raised by the web-method. When the NET framework issued for creating the web services the SoapException has occurred during any error situation.

6. Guaranteed Exception

As the web services use the HTTP protocol it is not confirmed that web services will be reliable because HTPP protocol is not a reliable protocol. The response delivery is not guaranteed by the HTTP protocol. If it is the user requirement to use HTTP protocol in web service then retry mechanism need to be implemented so that response can be retry in case of failure.

Examples to Implement web services

There are numerous web services that are provided for the user. Some of them are mentioned below:

SoapUI: The SoapUI tool is widely used for testing the REST APIs and also used for testing SOAP APIs. The toll is capable of load testing, integration testing and can be used for security.
Apache Axis: The Apache Axis is an XML base framework that issued for developing web service applications.
Apache CXF: The Apache CXF is an open-source framework that is used for creating front-end APIs. For example- JAX-RS and JAX-WS.

Conclusion

The web service is defined as a service that is available on the internet and can be accessed by web browsers. The web service is design as per user requirement and serves different functionality to its customers and for developing web service different protocols are used. The web service helps to communicate between a server application and client application using the web.