Understanding Web Services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI

I recommend this book for everyone beginning Web Services. However, I do so with a word of caution: READ IT SLOWLY AND READ IT TWICE. The book has a great spread of issues but is extremely difficult to sit down and read/work through.All the issues covered are covered lightly with the exception of the most important topics: WSDL, SOAP, UUDI and ebXML. The only thing it didn't touch on that I wish it would have was REST.Key pieces of these topics are scattered and you need to be careful to read through and keep notes about where you can find more information (I found myself keeping margin notes on where key pieces of information were in the book at the introduction of each topic).I recommend it so that you can understand the complexity and get a good overview of the topic, but I would definitely say that the book is only a good place to begin. It will leave your head spinning, but if you have purchased other books on individual topics, it will provide you with a reference on how they tie together.The book has its ups and it has its downs, but it is worth reading.

I have been thrown into the web services technology without a parachute and this book has helped to put things into perspective. You are not going to sit down and write code from this book, but it does help to define all of the pieces of web services technology and get you started.With that said, this was a difficult book to read because the writing style is very abrupt, does not flow, and reads like an old style academic textbook trying to impress and confuse the student. I've read more technical books that were easier to understand because they explain their subjects in more natural prose. I found myself frequently reading pages over one or more times.

I am a web developer, but new to web services. knowing the value of Web Services I purchased this book with the expectations that I'd have some knowledge after reading the book, Web services are definitely the way to go, but this book will not get you there! All high level information, nothing on HOW to implement, or use web services.

As a glosary is very good, if you where aming to learn how to program a web service it was not very good for me. I would prefer more code samples from the basics to advanced. Definitely you should have a previous knowledge of XML, and maybe even some basic knowledge of webservices before reading this.

This title is very good for understanding basic WS technologies. But is older for now and some informations are outdated. Reprint with updated information (espec. UDDIv3) would be good.

Eric Newcomer's "Understanding Web Services" provides for a solid theoretical overview into the world of the new web technologies, including XML, WSDL, SOAP and UDDI. For a newcomer into the field, this book is a good start to understanding to what these technologies are and what they can do for business.THE CONTENTS:Here are the topics that Newcomer addresses:1. Introduction to Web Services (XML, WSDL, SOAP and UDDI)2. XML - Describing Information3. WSDL - Describing Web Services4. SOAP - Accessing Web Services5. UDDI - Registering Web Services6. ebXML7. Other Web Service technologies8. How to ImplementTHE ANALYSIS:Overall, this book is a great teaching and learning tool to the basics of web services. Newcomer does a fine job of describing the various technologies and trying to "dumb" down the technology to describe how it works. One of the great things about the book is the "margin" notes on each page that highlight the definitions and key concepts that he tries to highlight. This makes the book easy to follow along with and helps to reinforce the concepts. Overall, this is great for a textbook.However, keep in mind that the subject is very technical so if you are not a techie there are parts where you WILL get lost. Overall though, you still come away with a good understanding of what these technologies are and how they can help your business.THE VERDICT:Overall, Newcomer does a fine job of covering the various technologies and issues that deal with web services and how they can be applied to business. While the subject is technical and you may got buried in some parts the book's style is still easy to follow. This book was used as a text for an e-commerce web services course I took during the Fall of 2002. Whether you are studying this subject independently or whether you are an instructor looking to use this book for your course, Newcomer's "Understanding Web Services" is a good choice.Highly Recommended

Newcomer's book is a good introduction to Web Services and how the major technologies play a role in this area. Technology Standards such as XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI are covered in enough detail to enable you to determine their relevance to a particular use case you may be thinking of.But I came to the book with some understanding already, so whether you can pick this up with no knowledge; I can not comment.He goes on to talk about ebXML, which you may find interesting but that's old news. One last point to keep in mind is that alot of the developments he talks about was up-to-date 2 years ago, but all the basics are still good.