The Power of a Web Service

A web service allows part of your software to be exposed so that other parties can use data or send data to your application. For the web site I created, I setup a web service that accepts truck positions. Meaning any person that goes to a certain URL can type just a few values and the website is updated. Or if another program passes in an XML file it can do the same. If another company wanted to, they could build there own app that integrates with my web service and the 2 apps would communicate seamlessly.

I was able to build a mobile app on Android that sent the trucks positions to the web site. The data is stored in an SQL database, hosted by your provider. Visual Studios has a great tool that will basically build your web service for you. You just need to define the methods, and the logic for what its going to do. The asmx file is constantly running on the server and listens for requests. The video below explain in brief how to do this.

The example here allows a driver to use the mobile app and he can type in the city that he is currently in. The business case for this application was, it allows a carrier to realize where the drivers are and if a job becomes available in that area, the carrier will call him and offer him a load.

There are so many real world scenarios where web services are used. In my next blog post I will be talking about Googles API. This is a service where developers can get a lot of information related to locations, maps, and routes. Using this information within there app, a programmer can create a really nice dynamic page.