Mike

Any chance of a reasonably simple example?

Thanks
Ke

>>>I have setup COM objects in VFP and used them to return HTML to ASP's, so I wasn't quite sure whether that was a Web Service. I always assumed that was a Web service, but then again, I'm new on the subject so I'm probably wrong.
>>
>>Nope, that would be a web page. Something you can view as HTML in a browser is a web page. Take this same concept of using HTTP to request something from a web server, but instead of returning HTML (data wrapped in UI) just return XML (just the data). That is the difference between a web service and a web page.
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>>The benifit of Web Services is that you can now access your data from any type of client that is HTTP compatible (VFP, VB, ASP, Linux, Delphi, PDAs/Cell Phones), not just a web browser.
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>>Web Services at their simplest is HTTP and XML, but as you learn more, you'll find they get more complicated (but tools like VFP7 make them just as simple as creating a VFP class) but much more usable and standard.