Beginning Java Programming

10Accessing Web Sources

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:                

• How computers communicate with each other over networks and the Internet
• What web services are and what the common web service standards are
• How to access web services and information on the Internet with Java
• How to set up your own web services with Java

WROX.COM CODE DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wrox.com/go/beginningjavaprogramming on the Download Code tab. The code is in the Chapter 10 download and individually named according to the names throughout the chapter.

Since its inception, Java has always been merited for its strong networking support, enabling computers to communicate with each other and transmit information between Java programs over networks and the Internet. To say it in the words of John Cage—the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems (where Java originated)—“the network is the computer.” This phrase was reflected in Sun’s philosophy and can be observed in Java as well.

In this day and age, programs rarely behave as an “island,” but communicate instead with a vast array of other platforms. In fact, you have seen one example of this in the previous chapter on how to communicate with database management systems in Java. This chapter takes you a step further and shows you how to interact with websites and web services, and how to create your own web services in Java to provide information to other parties.

Web applications are ...