With VFP, we're used to using COM to access functionality in another application. COM is a Windows technology. What happens if that other application is running on a Unix box or is hosted remotely? That's the purpose of web services. They are language and platform neutral. There's nothing mysterious about web services. With COM you have a client (the application using the component) and a server (the actual component). With web services you have a consumer (the application using the web service) and a provider (the actual web service). With COM, you have a type library that describes the public interfaces to the component. With web services, you have a WSDL file. With COM you pass parameters and get back a specific return result. With web services you pass parameters and get back XML.

So, how would web services compare to web connect, PHP, ASP, etc? Web services allow a remote application to call a method hosted on your server and get a return result in the form of XML. With web connect, php, asp, etc, you're talking about rendering a page for a browser.


>Hi Jim,
>
>I've been following your posts the last few days regarding Web Services; as this is an interest to me as well.
>
>Only reason for this post <g> is to kick up some talk about this, I am finding some difficulty in the usefullness of a WS vs a standard Web Connect, PHP, ASP, etc, connection.
>
>Just kicking in my worthless .2cents, as I know NUL about web services. But, am curious about it.
>
>Cris
>www.mcd-solutions.com