Web Services: Web services describe the open standard-based web applications that interact with other web applications over the network for the purpose of sharing data with each other. The services provided are through the web and in a standardized format like HTTP, XML, REST, or SOAP which makes them independent of the protocol on which the service was requested. Web Services generally has three parts Definitions, Operations, and Service Binding.
Usage: It can convert the existing applications into web applications with a standardized medium to start communication between the client and server applications on the World Wide Web i.e. it provides a common platform that allows various applications built using various different frameworks to have the ability to interact with each other.
Components of Web Services
- SOAP: It stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is a communication protocol that is used for the purpose of interaction between applications, and it is language as well as operating system independent.
- WSDL: It stands for Web Services Description Language. It is written in XML and used for the purpose of describing the process of accessing web services.
- UDDI: It stands for Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. It is also platform-independent and used to describe interfaces to web services.
Advantages:
- Application and data integration
- The client only needs the WSDL definition to effectively communicate with other applications.
Web Mashup:
A Web Mashup is a web application that is composed of content from different other web applications from different domains. It is usually a remix of data with other web services. It involves two or more applications combined to create a new application. They allow information to be viewed from different perspectives and combine data from multiple sources into a single integrated tool. It is done using a web application that takes information from one or more sources and presents it in a new way or with a different graphical user interface.
Usage: It provides applications additional helpful and economical ways to consume information on its own from one supply which is increased and brought to new levels once combined with one or additional connected sources. It enables the data from multiple sources to interact with one another. Users can create, share, and publish their developments and integrations.
Web Mashups helps in reducing development costs from lightweight integration providing great value to end-users.
Components of Web Mashup
- SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol(SOAP) is a network protocol for exchanging structured data between nodes. SOAP allows processes to communicate throughout platforms, languages, and operating systems since protocols like HTTP are already installed on all platforms.
- REST: REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style that defines a set of constraints to be used for creating web services.
- XMLHTTPRequest: It is used to communicate with the server without refreshing the web page and thus increasing the user experience and better performance. The XMLHttpRequest object is used to exchange data with a web server or update mini parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.
- XML-RPC: It is a very simple remote procedure call protocol used to exchange information using XML data over a network. The XML–RPC uses HTTP for transport allowing complex data structures for processing.
- JSON-RPC: JSON-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol using JSON. It is very much similar to XML-RPC protocol with few data types and commands allowing multiple calls to be sent to the server with asynchronous responses.
Advantages:
- Time-saving, therefore, facilitate rapid development
- Cheap and cost-effective.
Web Services vs Web Mashups
| Web Services | Web Mashups |
|---|---|
| Web Services allows different applications to share data and services among themselves. | A Web Mashup is a web application that is aggregated from many other web applications and contains data from different sources merged into a tool. |
| Types of web services include SOAP and REST. | Types of mashups include Server-side mashups and Client-side mashups. |
| They are essential so that other applications can use the functionality of your program once it is exposed to the network. | Web Mashups are used to share new business ideas, to increase agility, and to speed up development reducing costs. |
| They are different from web mashups in the way that web services are the key components in web mashups. | Web mashups are combined information from many different websites integrated together into a new useful service. |
| For example: NET application communicates to java web services etc. | For example: TrendsMap, SongDNA, ThisWeKnow, etc. |