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I need to explain web services to people who have little web development exp.

S

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
What are some good metaphor or method of explaining this to a group of people who program in older languages and had little web development exp. I don't want to make a presentation sound like i'm speaking chinese.
 
A web service is just an exposed HTTP POST or GET interface that optionally takes a set of parameters and returns data, either JSON, XML, or something else. It's not semantically different from any parameterized method call or message. There are other related concepts like SOAP and REST, but they have more to do with how the interface is described to consumers than how it functions.
 
^ right, it's a function call (with parameters passed by value only) or message between different machines across a network. It doesn't even have to be HTTP though, it can be over TCP or UDP.

Everything on top of that is just standards or agreements to make library use possible.

For example if the client and server agree to use SOAP then they can use standard libraries and toolkits to automate some of the work of building, sending, receiving and decoding messages.

Old stuff like PING, DNS, DHCP and WWW web servers are web services. You send "GET /" to port 80 and get back a page.
 
If they have a smart phone app that syncs to a website, they're probably using some form of a web service.
 
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Simplest definition of webservice is that they are exposed remote methods or functions. Key advantage is "remote."
 
How about, the ability to do some sort of processing remotely. The example would be I can run function x on my machine, or I could run it on the infinitely faster server elsewhere.
 
KIAman said:
Simplest definition of webservice is that they are exposed remote methods or functions. Key advantage is "remote."
Click to expand...

Exactly. Just tell them it's the newest variation of a "remote procedure call" and most of the old timers will immediately know what you're talking about.

Dave
 
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