Web Services
Since the start of the Internet people have been striving for ways for web applications to
communicate with each other. Web Services provide this function and have been developing over
recent years to become a powerful means of tieing together disparate systems which otherwise
would not be able to share data.
What is a Web Service?
In order to explain what a Web Service is, it is easier to give an example.
A good example of how TNC use web services would be for displaying exchange rates on websites.
A common requirement on modern websites is to display prices in multiple currencies. This gives
visitors prices in their local currency.
One way of doing this is to have a link on your website to another website that offers an
exchange rate calculator. However, a better option is to run a Web Service which collects this
information from a central location (in our case from the European Central Bank) and then passes
this information directly to the web application, so that the web application can calculate the
rates and output this information on the page. The visitor can then get the information they require
without leaving the web site.
In simplistic terms the Web Service provides the exchange rates directly to your web site in
real time so that your website can calculate its own prices independently.
An example of how a Web Service has been applied to one of our projects can be seen by visiting
The Lawn Guest House website.
ASP.Net and web services
ASP.Net, our chosen development platform has a number of built in features to allow the development
of web services and mechanisms for consuming (using) them. This puts us in an excellent position to
develop web services for our own use and use by our clients.
What does the development of a web service cost?
Web services are specific to each project and vary in cost according to complexity. To give
you an indication of our standard costs click here.