Web services can change the way a developer writes code and thinks about each application. They allow developers to make use of public code that’s already been written and is available on the internet, possibly speeding up development time. In large applications that utilize multiple databases they can help to centralize data, minimize bugs, and ease future customization. Web Services greatly ease application-to-application communication and can be used in countless implementations. As the need for application-to-application communication and interoperability grows, the use of Web Services is rapidly increasing to satisfy such needs.

What is a web service? A Web Service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (the WSDL). Other applications interact with the Web Service by using SOAP messages created in XML and conveyed via HTTP. SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is a protocol that is designed for the exchanged of information in a decentralized, distributed environment, and it is a fundamental aspect of Web Services.

The following presentation is a beginner's guide to Web Services with 4th Dimension. The main goals of this session are to show how web services can be useful, to provide a general overview of Web Services, and how it enables 4D to become a major player in integrating application-to-application communication within a distributed environment.