Summary
This chapter demonstrated the benefits of using Java to develop Web services. First, Java simplifies the development of servers, including those that need to provide Web services, either directly or by wrapping existing legacy applications. Second, Java is also an excellent language to use to develop Web service clients, because of both the breadth of support for Java across a range of hardware, as well as the rich GUI applications that Java enables.
Finally, the powerful Java development environments, many of which are free for development efforts, simplify the routine tasks that can be required in building and deploying Web services. In its current state, and given the incredible growth of new functionality, Java is poised to dominate the world of Web services.
The next two chapters build on this material, and use Java to actually create Web services and clients. First, Chapter 5 demonstrates how to put all the pieces together to create a Java HelloWorld Web service. Chapter 6 delves into a more complex example, showing how Web services can be used to connect businesses together.