Get Web Services Technologies

A key difference between web service and API is the way that software applications or machines communicate. With web service, a network is required to transfer information. However, with an API a network is optional. APIs are also commonly leveraged on internal databases and do not require a network.

APIs can be used to retrieve data from a database, perform calculations, or interact with other web-based services. A web application, on the other hand, is a software program that runs in a web browser.

The purpose of a web service is to provide clients with a particular product or service. For example, Google offers a variety of web services that involve storing information, such as email or cloud storage drives.

The key distinction is that web services are a type of API: All web services are APIs, but not all APIs are web services. 'API' is the broader category because, by definition, it refers to any software component that acts as an intermediary between two otherwise disconnected applications.

Companies actively use web services for common tasks, for instance, when integrating payments to their platforms or while registering users on a new website via Facebook or Google credentials. Asking Siri or Alexa the weather forecast and using Google Maps are other examples of web services in a day-to-day routine.

Web services are of two kinds: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer (REST). SOAP defines a standard communication protocol (set of rules) specification for XML-based message exchange. SOAP uses different transport protocols, such as HTTP and SMTP.

XML along with HTTP forms the basis of web services. XML provides a language which can be used between different platforms and programming languages and still express complex messages and functions. The HTTP protocol is the most used Internet protocol.

An API is also an abstraction of the web server. The application (such as a website or a mobile app) will make an API call for a set of data to display for the end user to consume. The request is made via the API that accesses the web server to retrieve the requested data, which is populated in the user interface.