Glossary >> W >> Web Service

 

(1) A Web service is a software system identified by a URI [RFC 2396],  
whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML.  
Its definition can be discovered by other software systems.  These systems
may then interact with the Web service in a manner  prescribed by its
definition, using XML based messages conveyed by  Internet protocols.

-- Web Services Architecture Requirements  (W3C Working Group Note 11 February 2004) (http://www.w3.org/TR/wsa-reqs/)  

(2) 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 (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact  
with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP  
messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in
conjunction  with other Web-related standards

-- Web Services Architecture  (W3C Working Group Note 11 February 2004) (http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/)