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XML Web Services Created Using ASP.NET and XML Web Service Clients

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This topic is specific to a legacy technology. XML Web services and XML Web service clients should now be created using Windows Communication Foundation.

In recent years, one force has irrevocably restyled the application development landscape more than any other — the Internet. Organizations have become increasingly dependent upon the digital resources and channels of communication that are provided by the Internet and related technologies. As a result, very few applications are designed and developed today that do not consider how best to incorporate and leverage Internet technologies to fully leverage the benefits of connected computing.

When not pursuing wholly new application development, organizations can be found attempting to create applications that aggregate several traditional, task-oriented applications into a single, composite application. This sometimes includes integrating applications that exist within the boundaries of a separate entity, such as another company or a service provider. However, a still greater dilemma arises when attempting to integrate legacy applications built using an assortment of technologies, object models, operating systems, and programming languages. How do you make them all work together? The answer is the programmable Internet.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as an open data description format has given rise to the reality of a programmable Internet. Just as TCP/IP provided universal connectivity for the Internet, and HTML provided a standardized language to display information on a wide variety of platforms for human consumption, XML provides a standardized language to exchange data for automated consumption. It provides the ability to represent data in a widely accepted format that enables computers to send and receive data in a predictable style, enabling programmability that extends beyond closed, controlled systems. XML is liberating because its simplicity and extensibility allows you to define just about anything, while allowing room for expansion. One of the fundamental building blocks of the programmable Internet is XML Web services.

Microsoft offers support for building XML Web services, using technologies designed to meet the needs of different audiences. Specifically, Microsoft offers developers the option of creating XML Web services using ASP.NET, ATL Server, .NET remoting, and the SOAP Toolkit 2.0. ASP.NET and .NET remoting make creating XML Web services easier, as they are built on top of the .NET Framework. The SOAP Toolkit 2.0 provides compliant XML Web services support to Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and legacy applications, allowing them to interoperate with XML Web services built on the .NET Framework.

In This Section

  • Building XML Web Service Clients
    Details how to build a client to an XML Web service, regardless of the platform or technology used to build the XML Web service.
  • Using SOAP Headers
    Details how SOAP headers can be defined, processed, and manipulated for clients calling XML Web services created using ASP.NET.
  • Network Programming
    Shows how to use Internet access classes to implement both Web- and Internet-based applications.

Build Date: 2011-02-07