Web services have taken the development world by storm, especially in recent years as they’ve become more and more widely adopted. There are naturally many reasons for this, but first, let’s understand what exactly a web service is. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines «web of services» as «message-based design frequently found on the Web and in enterprise software». Basically, a web service is a method of sending a message between two devices through a network.
In practical terms, this translates to an application which outputs communication in a standardized format for other client applications to receive and act on.