For those not familiar with web services, they are a way for servers to
exchange messages with each other using XML standards. Despite the extreme
hype, web services do not enable you to do anything that was not previously
possible. Since the earliest versions of ColdFusion, CF developers have used
the CFHTTP tag to post an HTTP request to another server and then analyzed
the response. Submitting (or receiving) a request via web services simply
does the same thing, albeit using XML standards.
CFMX and Web Services
With ColdFusion MX, Macromedia made implementing web services very easy.
(Although CFMX 7 was recently released, the web services implementation has
no major changes or enhancements.) To receive a web services request, simply
create a ColdFusion Component (CFC)... (more)