- What Are XML Web Services?
- When Are XML Web Services Appropriate?
- Using the .NET Framework to Create XML Web Services
- Hailstorm: An XML Web Services Example
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
Hailstorm: An XML Web Services Example
To best illustrate where development with XML Web services is heading, it may be good to look at where one of its major players, Microsoft, is heading with it. Microsoft recently announced the Hailstorm project, which is a series of XML Web services built around Microsoft's own passport authentication technology that will allow developers to create applications that truly integrate the user's Web experience.
Table 1.1 provides a listing of the services that Microsoft has currently implemented in the Hailstorm framework. With these services, applications can be built that would allow users to, for example, schedule trips and hotel reservations, keep records of their expenses, and list their itineraries, with access opened up to others in their company to track their whereabouts, keep updated billing information, and notify the users of any additional meetings that the head office may wish to schedule for them.
Table 1.1 Current Hailstorm Services
Service |
Description |
myAddress |
Provides electronic and geographic address information |
myApplication_Settings |
Provides application settings |
myCalendar |
Provides time management functionality |
myContacts |
Provides an online address book |
myDevices |
Provides online access to device information |
myDocuments |
Provides a method for remote document storage |
myFavorite_ |
Provides a list of favorite URLs, |
WebSites |
like the option in Internet Explorer |
myInbox |
Provides access to items such as e-mail and voicemail |
myLocation |
Another service that provides addressing information |
myNotifications |
Provides electronic notifications |
myProfile |
Provides profile information such as name, alias, pictures, etc. |
myServices |
Provides online access to a list of a user services |
myUsage |
Provides usage reports on myServices information |
myWallet |
Provides access to transaction records such as payment information and receipts |
Microsoft plans to add more services to the Hailstorm project in the future, creating a very centralized set of services for developers to tap into. Using Hailstorm as a business model, it is not too difficult to imagine companies switching from traditional consulting services to the XML Web services marketeither providing XML Web services for third-party software developers to use or creating XML Web services that they themselves integrate into the applications they build for clients.