July 6, 2002 - Describing the add Web Service

Yehuda Shiran July 6, 2002
Describing the add Web Service
Tips: July 2002

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

You can test a Web service before you consume it from a DHTML or an ASP.NET page. A Web service is an entity by itself, besides providing services to its consumers. Suppose you put simpleCalc.asmx in c:\inetpub\wwwwroot\Webreference. Browse http://localhost/Webreference/simpleCalc.asmx. You can see the WSDL description of your Web service. Browse the address http://localhost/Webreference/simpleCalc.asmx?WSDL and see a structured description of the Web service:

Notice how much you get for free. For a mere 9 lines of code in simpleCalc.asmx, you get thousands of lines in the automatically-generated description, test forms, etc. This is one of the advantages of .NET: you write only a small portion of the application--the rest is added by the framework.

To learn more about JScript .NET, go to Column 112, JScript .NET, Part VI: Creating IE Web Services.