What is a descriptive name for a web service that responds with plain text?

Question

I'm looking for the proper name for a web service that responds with text as opposed to XML. As an example this "cardServer" service will return 5 cards for a poker hand.

http://hostname:8080/cardServer/deal/Game=Poker&Qty=5

The result could look like this:

Card1=Ad
Card2=Kc
Card3=Ts
Card4=5d
Card5=3d

The real world example is not as trivial, but the concept is the same. Parameters if any are passed as POST variables.

We currently parse the response into a string list and use the values. The process works just fine. What I'm wondering if this service method has a name that has easier tools to deal with the responses and therefore did we reinvent the wheel? For the record the service was provided and maintained by a customer.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '11 at 22:40

2

An API. Or maybe a an event driven SOA web service. At least that's what I'd call it.

answered Feb 10 '11 at 22:40

Antonius Bloch

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When in doubt "web API" is usually safe :) – voretaq7 Feb 10 '11 at 22:42
I think my problem is that this is considered a Servlet and not a Web Service by some of the definitions I've found. – Feb 11 '11 at 21:26

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '11 at 22:36

0

Text Webservice?

Straight-up WebService is pretty generic but to overcome the standard XML WebService assumption you'll probably just need to describe it like it is.

answered Feb 10 '11 at 22:36

squillman

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What is a descriptive name for a web service that responds with plain text?

2 Answers2