What is a proxy web service?

Question

What is a proxy web service ??

Answer 1

A client and a Web service can communicate using SOAP messages, which encapsulate the input and output parameters as XML. A proxy class maps parameters to XML elements and then sends the SOAP messages over a network. In this way, the proxy class frees you from having to communicate with the Web service at the SOAP level and allows you to invoke Web service methods in any development environment that supports SOAP and Web service proxies.

Example:

1. Client calls the proxy's method, Login(username,password).
2. The proxy serializes these parameters into a SOAP message, and sends it over HTTP to the Web service.
3. The Web service returns the result (true or false in this case) of Login() method call serialized in a SOAP message.
4. The proxy class deserializes the response, and returns the boolean value true to the client application.