Difference between Web Services and calling a Url through http connection?

Hi,

I am very new to Web Services and would like to know what is the difference between calling a Web Service and callling a URL through http connection. Both can be used by any client application.

Hope to get a reply soon.

Regards
Sunil

Hi!
This is a simplified and very brief introduction which I hope will answer your question:

SOAP web servcies: When you issue a web service request, you are typically invoking some processing in the web service server that, optionally using some indata, may or may not produce a result that is returned.

RESTful web services: Issuing a request typically retrieves the representation, commonly in XML or JSON, of a resource identified by the URL to which the request was sent.

Issuing a request for an URL in a browser or using a HTTP client program typically retrieves some data from the URL in question. The data can be static, but can also be dynamically generated.

Best wishes!

Note that a request to a URL is completely open-ended with respect to what is returned.

SOAP is a very strictly controlled protocol for both the request and return formats.

REST provides a formal way of thinking about web services which provides for great flexibility in returned data format and is easier to program than SOAP.

Bill