For many Java developers, web services appeared to come out of nowhere. Its
advantages are clear: web services are platform-independent (like Java itself),
language-agnostic (a clear advantage over Java RMI), can easily be tunneled
through firewalls (an obvious benefit to anyone who has dealt with modern
enterprise networks), object-oriented (we all know about that), and tends to be
loosely coupled (allowing more flexible application development). But these
advantages have been obscured by a cloud of hype and a proliferation of jargon
that are difficult to penetrate. What are SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and JAXM? To say
nothing of JAXR, tModels, category bags, WSFL, and other friends? And assuming
that