A Web service is an application that is built on standard Internet and XML technologies and has the following characteristics:
Includes public interfaces and bindings defined and described using XML.
Publishes these public interfaces and bindings across the network for use by other programs.
A Web service accepts a request, performs its function based on the request, and returns a response. The request and the response can be part of the same operation, or they can occur separately, in which case the consumer need not wait for a response. Both the request and the response usually take the form of XML, a portable data-interchange format, and are delivered over a wire protocol, such as HTTP.
Web service transactions are usually conducted between businesses. A business that is a provider of one service can also be a consumer of another service. A Web service consumer can also be a client device, such as a thin client connecting to the Web service provider over a lightweight protocol.
This chapter discusses the Oracle Reports Web service and contains the following sections: