Chapter 41. Creating and Consuming Web Services with PHP
Web services are an emerging field of programming that seeks to apply the benefits of the web to bigger problems than merely displaying data in a browser. PHP, which has already proven itself as a core glue component of the web, has the opportunity to grab even more market share in the Web services arena. As is true of other hot technologies such as XML, however, a world of hype surrounds Web services. Here we try to cut through the buzzwords and analyst predictions to look at what Web services mean to the average PHP developer.
The End of Programming as We Know It
The title of this section is a bit of a joke — one of us works in the Web services field and often hears presentations that assert things such as: "In 10 years, we will have no more need for programmers, because Web services will eliminate duplication of effort." Many people have thought that programming was about to die out, and all of them have been wrong so far — but hope springs eternal in the pundit's breast. Notching down the hyperbole to manageable levels, we can say that Web services could make some common but hard tasks in commercial computer programming a lot easier.
The ugly truth about data movement
Joking aside, Web services do solve some problems — at the moment largely in the realm of moving data around. Later in ...
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