Key Terminology of Web Services
- Request and Response
- Message Exchange Format: XML and JSON
- Service Provider or Server
- Service Consumer or Client
- Service Definition
- Transport: HTTP and MQ
Request and Response: Request is the input to a web service, and the response is the output from a web service.
Message Exchange Format: It is the format of the request and response. There are two popular message exchange formats: XML and JSON.
Service Provider or Server: Service provider is one which hosts the web service.
Service Consumer or Client: Service consumer is one who is using the web service.
Service Definition: Service definition is the contract between the service provider and service consumer. Service definition defines the format of request and response, request structure, response structure, and endpoint.
Transport: Transport defines how a service is called. There is two popular way of calling a service: HTTP and Message Queue (MQ). By tying the URL of service, we can call the service over the internet. MQ communicates over the queue. The service requester puts the request in the queue. As soon as the service provider listens to the request. It takes the request, process the request, and create a response, and put the response back into MQ. The service requester gets the response from the queue. The communication happens over the queue.
