What Skills Do You Need to Jumpstart Web Services Projects

The exciting Web services technology promises to allow disparate computer systems and applications to communicate and interoperate. That’s a big deal in IT industry. Although this technology is still a work in progress, you should start to prepare yourself for this technology. When this technology matures, you should be ready to handle web services projects with enough knowledge and skills.

To start working on web services, you must have good knowledge and skills on the platform. A web services project is either Microsoft .NET based or Java/J2EE based. The choice between .NET and J2EE is always in debate. Web services developers usually prefer the one that can extend skills already developed from working with Microsoft tools or Java/J2EE platform.

Both .Net and Java web services technologies are They’re evolving changing quickly, but you can start to build fundamental skills. If you decide to go with .NET, you should learn .NET framework and Visual Studio.NET tools. If you prefer Java, you should make yourself good at J2EE technology.

Web services implement same standards that you must understand no matter what type of platform you work with. As web services technology takes the stage in the IT world, implementing those standards will become a part of the basic skills for software developers. The web services standards contains four building blocks:

XML (Extensible Markup Language):

The structured language for identifying data under Web services. XML is the underlying technology enabling other Web services standards to function.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol):

The messaging protocol for exchanging information in a Web services environment.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language):

The language used to describe the specific services being offered.

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration): A registry of business services and products designed to enable companies to find and exchange resources.

I recommend that you learn these four web services standards and enhance the fundamental skills in .NET or J2EE. That would make you stay ahead of the move. Sooner or later, IT professionals will have to deal with Web services. In today’s difficult job market, having the knowledge of cutting-edge technologies could make a difference.