Introduction to web services in DataStage

A web service describes:

• An application that is published and made available through a network, such as the internet.
• Recent and well-established protocols and standards that make access to the application possible.

A web service exposes one or more operations, which are functions that you call from another application, such as DataStage®. The operation accepts a request and returns a response. For example, an electronic brokerage might deploy a web service that returns portfolio information when you submit an account and password.

The following diagram illustrates the flow in a transaction between a web service and DataStage. The web service is a self-contained application, which can interface with other applications within a company.