Professional XML Web Services

This is a good intro to various topics related to web services, probably the best one available so far (admittedly a pretty small field at this time). It covers the standards behind the technology and proceeds to practical working examples of how to put web services into use. There is some coverage of projected future technologies, but mostly sticks to systems that are currently available (skipping, for example, Apache Axis). The author-per-chapter approach means the chapters are somewhat independent, so you can select a topic of interest and go right to that chapter, without having to read everything that came before it. On the other hand, it means some material is covered in multiple places in the book.

I am totally new to Web services, and know not a lot about XML. This book I found was for me a very nice general overall introduction to webservices. It was enough to get me immediatley started in Web services. I can definitley recommend this book to anyone new to Web services.

Do you have to develop Web Services within the next few months? Then this is a good book to have. Remember, that this is a new technology and things seem to be changing at a very rapid pace. So, by the time you buy this book verify that this is not out of date. In the current form, I would recommend this book till early part of 2002.