Web services are loosely defined as the use of Internet technologies to make distributed software components talk to each other without human intervention. The software components might perform such business logic as getting a stock quote, searching the inventory of a catalog on the Internet, or integrating the reservation services for an airline and a car rental agency. You can reach across the Internet and use preexisting components, instead of having to write them for your application.
A PowerBuilder application can act as a client consuming a Web service that is accessed through the Internet. Through use of SOAP and WSDL, a collection of functions published remotely as a single entity can become part of your PowerBuilder application. A Web service accepts and responds to requests sent by applications or other Web services.
For more information about Web services, see Chapter 29, “Building a Web Services Client.”
