Web services for mobile devices can be an effective way to avail mobile devices of server computing power and/or databases, according to an article at IBM's DeveloperWorks website. "Desiging Mobile Web Services" considers when web services are appropriate, before presenting a detailed, technical overview of designing custom web services.
Web services use XML (structured general markup language) and SOAP (simple object access protocol) to distribute applications, offering an alternative to socket communications and messaging techniques. Web services work especially well when application components are written in different languages, author Shu Fang Rui suggests.
