For Immediate Release
October 22, 2002
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the authors, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or
kathrynb@oreilly.com New Guide to Building Web Services with ASP.NET and C#
O'Reilly Releases
"Programming .NET Web Services" Sebastopol, CA--Web services are poised to become a key technology for
a wide range of internet-enabled applications, spanning everything from
straight B2B systems to mobile devices and proprietary in-house
software. While there are several tools and platforms that can be used
for building web services, many developers are finding a powerful tool
in Microsoft's .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET. Designed from the
start to support the development of web services, the .NET Framework
simplifies the process--programmers find that tasks that took an hour
using the
SOAP Toolkit take just minutes with the .NET Framework.
Alex Ferrara, coauthor with Matthew MacDonald of the new "Programming
.NET Web Services" (O'Reilly, US $39.95), recalls how his discovery of
the new platform's support for web services: "I was doing work with
Microsoft's SOAP Toolkit to create web services for a content provider
back in the fall of 2000," says Ferrara. "I thought the idea of web
services, as a standard mechanism for machine-to-machine data
communication, was very promising but the development tools were
immature and required a detailed knowledge of XML and SOAP for even
simple tasks." Ferrara found that the SOAP Toolkit's high-level API
wasn't very powerful and the low-level API wasn't efficient. Moreover,
it was challenging to manage client/service interoperability, to figure
out how to implement caching, state management and security, and create
service descriptions. Tools on other platforms had similar issues.
"At the same time, I started
testing the first public beta version of
the .NET Framework and Visual Studio.NET. I was blown away by the
improvements over ASP 3.0, and was especially amazed by the support for
web services."
"Web services aren't a new technology, but .NET is the most elegant
approach developers have seen in awhile," adds MacDonald. "It's
interesting that we aren't just seeing a whole new platform with .NET,
but also a whole new Microsoft--one that's remarkably devoted to
third-party standards like XML and SOAP, and arguably abandoning some
of its traditional attitudes."
"Programming .NET Web Services" is a comprehensive tutorial that
teaches the skills necessary to develop web services hosted on the new
.NET platform. Written for experienced VB or C# programmers, this book
goes beyond the obvious functionality of ASP.NET or Visual Studio .NET
to provide a solid foundation in the building blocks of web services,
leading readers step-by-step through the process of creating their
own.
Beginning with a close look at the underlying technologies of web
services, including the benefits and limitations of these technologies,
"Programming .NET Web Services" discusses the unique features of the
.NET Framework that make creating web services easier, including the
Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the namespaces used in .NET
programming. Filled with numerous code examples in both C# and Visual
Basic .NET, the book explores some of the more challenging issues of
web services development, including the use of proxies, marshalling of
complex data types, state management, security, performance tuning, and
cross-platform implementation. The book also covers:
-Creating and publishing one's first web service
-The UDDI project, tModels and what they mean for web service
publishers
-Generating proxy applications from existing web services
-Securing web service applications for private use
Written for programmers who are familiar with the .NET Framework and
interested in building industrial-strength web services, "Programming
.NET Web Services" is full of practical information and advice. It's
the tutorial and reference book web service developers will want beside
them as they work.
Additional resources:
.NET articles by these authors and others may be found on:
http://www.ondotnet.com/ Chapter 2, "Creating ASP.NET Web Services," is available free online
at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetws/chapter/ch02.html For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
index, author bios, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetws/ For a cover graphic in jpeg format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596002505.jpg Programming .NET Web Services
Alex Ferrara and Matthew MacDonald
ISBN 0-596-00250-5, 396 pages, $39.95 (US), $61.95 (CAN)
order@oreilly.com 1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
