Web services is the technology that allows interconnectivity between applications, irrespective of platform and programming languages. It’s a software interface that defines a collection of functions that can be accessed from the web via standard messages

Uses JSON format to define an operation for execution as well as the data exchange with 3rd party applications.

Softone Web Services are a collection of functions and operations which secure:

• Validation of requests and named requests
• Data accessibility
• Data exchange
• The data management (new, edit, delete)
• Data Security
• Log entries for all requests

The boom of Web Services is not a revolution in distributed systems. On the contrary, it’s a natural development of the application from a structured representation of data to a structured representation of messages between the applications.
The Web Services provide a totally different way of thinking for the software development.
From the client-server model to the multi-tier systems to the distributed systems, the Web Services applications represent the pinnacle of each one of these architectures in combination with the web.

Standard http protocol is used, however

• Instead of calling a page request, a call of an operation is requested, using the “GET” and “POST”
• Instead of returning a page, only the result of a function is returned, as content.

Allows an application in one PC station to call an operation in another, irrespective of:

• The operating system
• The programming language
• The manufacturer
• The location on the web
• The architecture
• The schema descriptions
• The discovery standards

Advantages in comparison to legacy distributed systems:

• Easier data handling
• Simplicity in the communication protocol
• Simplicity in the infrastructure
• Ease in communication
• Interoperability and ease of developing new applications
• Interaction between services in any platform and programming language
• Loose connectivity between applications
• Adaptable to already existing applications in the ever-changing business conditions and requirements of the customers