Visual C#. NET 2003 Unleashed

IN BRIEF

Many of the samples available for consuming web services consist mainly of a simple application that makes a synchronous call to a Hello World web service, and that's the end of the sample. In the real world, however, a programmer needs to be aware of quite a few things in order to provide high-quality web service consumption. One such concern is how to obtain the proper and current definition of the web service and how to integrate that definition into the application. Another concern might be how to deal with asynchronous access to avoid creating an unfriendly user experience, as well as issues such as network detection, reliability, and keeping the application functional when the web service is unavailable or offline.

This chapter will show you how to deal with all of these things and more. Follow along with the code samples, and by the time you reach the end of the chapter you should feel extremely confident in your skills to not only consume a web service, but to consume it properly and with sufficient error handling, reliability, and ease of use.

WHAT YOU NEED

CONSUMING WEB SERVICES AT A GLANCE