Introduction

Web services are the interchange of XML-based queries and responses between clients and servers over the Internet or an intranet via standard protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, or SMTP.

OS X provides support for the client side of these queries and responses, allowing your application to exchange information with remote web servers. Some support for the server side of these operations is also available, primarily the translation between CFTypes and XML for SOAP and XML-RPC protocols.

You can communicate with remote servers using Apple events or the Web Services Core framework. Support is provided for using web services from procedural C, Cocoa, or AppleScript. This document describes using the WebServicesCore framework from procedural C or Cocoa. For guidance on using Apple events from AppleScript, see XML-RPC and SOAP Programming Guide.

The web services API has built-in support for SOAP 1.1, SOAP 1.2, and XML-RPC protocols. The API also supports custom serialization schemes, allowing you to work with other standards or proprietary schemes.

If you are writing an application that needs to exchange information with remote servers using XML over HTTP or HTTPS, you should read this document.

Organization of This Document

This document consists of two chapters:

• About Web Services—a brief introduction to standard methods of exchanging information with remote servers and a general discussion of the web services API.

• Using the Web Services Core Framework—step-by-step examples for accessing web services from a procedural C or Cocoa application using the Web Services Core framework