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web services
Web services are the backbone of information sharing across the internet. The ability to call a remote computer to obtain information and then use it locally - meaning on your desktop or in your web site. The samples presented here are links to web services. Through these services portals can collect inventory information from a set of retailers - cars for example. Although the samples presented here involve a user interface, communication between web services can be done in the background = polling stock data and saving the data in a local database.
WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) improves on web services by improving security, routing, reliable messaging and transaction support. The Smoothies system is a WCF service which demonstrates some of these features. Additionally WCF can use several transportation protocals (TCP, NamedPipes, MSMSQ) which enables WCF to provide a service on other channels - i.e. not just the Web.