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Businesses, Software Developers, and Investment Circles are all abuzz regarding the 'software revolution' promised by the new XML Web Services standards. Organizations including Microsoft, IBM and Sun are investing millions into developing and adopting Web Service architectures

"Web services are a new breed of Web application. They are self-contained, self-describing, modular applications that can be published, located, and invoked across the Web. Web services perform functions, which can be anything from simple requests to complicated business processes." -- IBM

Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, said recently that the productivity that the business world has seen to date is only the beginning, and Web services will deliver new enhancements.

• What are Web Services?
• What are the benefits for the end user?
• What are the benefits for the developer?
• What are the benefits of Xara Modules?
• Summary
• Further Reading

What are Web Services?

Put simply, Web Services are programs, or parts of programs, that are accessed over the internet via a URL as you would with a web page.

It's not unusual to have the content of one web page being composed of text, images and data supplied by different web servers, perhaps from different locations in the world. The point is that you, the visitor of the web page, don't know and don't care where and how the web page is composed, only that it works and delivers the content you require. Just as web pages are accessed from around the globe and delivered to your desktop, so are Web Services.

Much of the development work so far has been aimed at large corporate, enterprise-scale IT departments. You might ask, "But what are the advantages of this new approach for the small or medium sized business? What are real tangible benefits to my business of Web Services?"

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What are the benefits for the end user?

Web Services are hosted programs, or parts of programs-there's no downloads and no installs.
Web Services operate across the Internet, so they do not run on users' computer. This means that they need no special hardware or software in order to take advantage of Web Service-based applications.
The great vision of Web Services is that applications can be built that use specific functions from companies all around the world. The technical term is that they can be 'distributed applications,' meaning the program operates in a distributed manner rather than in just one place on one computer.
Web Services lend themselves to new, more cost effective payment models, such as subscription services and pay-as-you-go models. The hugely popular pay-as-you-go model has revolutionized the mobile/cell phone market in the UK.
Web Services are based on open, widely accepted standards, which have been adopted by all the major software vendors.
Web Services are platform independent. Parts of an application may be running on a Microsoft Windows server, and other parts on a Linux server, with no impact on the end user.
Because a Web Service normally resides on the servers of the provider, bug fixes and upgrades are almost entirely eliminated for the end user. Changes can be made directly on the server, so that all end users can instantly benefit from extra security, stability or features without having to do a thing.
Because Web Service applications run over the internet, typically this means you can access, manage and run your applications from anywhere in the world.
Web Services uses the same internet infrastructure created to quickly and reliably serve web pages. It uses the same systems to manage load distribution, ensuring reliability and scalability.

What are the benefits for the developer?

Web Services can be small, very specific functions ideally suited to the smaller developer or development company. They are a way in which the small guy can develop niche products and make them available to a worldwide market. It's a chance for the small developer to compete with the big guys again.
Web Services cannot be pirated. They operate on the internet, on servers, and so there is nothing to download, steal or run on a desktop computer.
Because of the common open standard, the theory is that it's now much easier to get diverse computers and platforms to talk to each other. The fact that you might like Linux doesn't in any way prevent you participating fully in a market that may be entirely Microsoft based.
Because Web Services run on your server (typically at a hosting company) you know exactly how much your product is being used when and in what way. None of this information has been readily available to developers of traditional 'desktop' or client-side software before now.
Web Services bring the potential of recurring revenue, rather than a one-off license fee. Get paid for how much your product is used, rather than a one-off fee that's irrespective product usage.
The upgrade cycle 'nightmare' that plagues all client-side developers is almost entirely eliminated.

What are the benefits of Xara Modules?

All of the above. But in addition, Xara Online provide a number of key pieces that until now have been missing from the Web Services arena.

Web Services have been aimed entirely at technical programmer levels. We have made Web Services usable by a broader audience. We have turned Web Service technical functions into modular building block parts that can be used by non-programmers. Xara Modules are Web Services made easy.
We enable Web Services to be used directly within any website and on any web page. We have a mechanism for displaying the Web Service as HTML and embedding this HTML (which may be a very complex front-end on a Web Service) into any web page via a one-line snippet of HTML. We also have Dreamweaver and FrontPage add-ons that allow our Modules to be inserted directly into websites with no HTML required at all.
We have a 'connectable' Web Service infrastructure that enables the non-technical user to connect different Web Services together to create more rich and complex applications. This is based on a very simple input and output concept where users connect outputs of one Web Services to the input of another to create the required function.
We provide a sophisticated payment and billing system meaning we can track usage and charge on a per month subscription basis or on a per-use basis for any Module or combination of Modules. We can charge micro-payments for the use of a particular service. The usage and billing of a diverse set of Web Services can be consolidated into one simple-to-use payment system.
We enable Web Services to be configured by the end-user. Typically a Web Service is just a programmatic function that's designed to be controlled by other programs. Using the Xara Module interface, non-technical users can configure the exact operation of the Web Service as required by their website or within their application.

Xara Modules can provide the above benefits to just about any existing Web Service, by creating a simple interface between the Web Service and the Xara Module system. This enables the user to select, configure and connect the Web Service to others in order to build rich complex web-based applications.

At present, Xara Online provides six different Web Service Modules. These are the core building blocks for a diverse range of web applications. The range and complexity of applications that can be created as a result will grow as we add more new Web Services (both our own and from third parties) to the Xara Module range.

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Summary

The key benefits that Xara Modules offer are:

A dramatically more cost effective way to create and deploy web-based applications and to integrate these into your website. Instead of having to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have a bespoke website, you can now pay from ten to no more than a hundred dollars per month to quickly and easily customize your website to just how you want it.
Even non-technical users can create database and messaging applications in hours, not days.