Macromedia dreamweaver 8-using dreamweaver User Manual

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Chapter 37:  Using Web Services
This chapter contains the following sections:
About web services
Web services allow applications to communicate and share information across the Internet, 
regardless of operating system or programming language. Examples of web services, and the 
information and functionality they provide, include the following:
User authentication and authorization
Credit card validation
Financial markets services that return stock prices associated with specified ticker symbols
Purchasing services that allow users to order products online
Information services that provide news or other information types based on a selected 
interest, location, or other personal information
By providing functionality as a service that a web page connects to and uses as needed, web 
services give developers and service providers greater flexibility in designing and deploying 
powerful, distributed applications.
Web services consist of the following basic components:
Service publishers
 provide hosted applications and make them available for use. Web 
services can be provided either for free, or as a fee-based service.
Service brokers
 maintain a registry of service providers with descriptions of service 
offerings and links to their applications.
Service consumers
 are the web pages that access and use the remote web service.