webdienst

Webdienst is a term used in German-speaking contexts to describe a software component that provides specific functionality over the web and is intended for programmatic access by other applications. It enables machine-to-machine interaction and is typically reachable through standardized web protocols.

It exposes a public interface—an API—described by a contract such as WSDL for SOAP-based services or OpenAPI/Swagger for RESTful services. Data are commonly encoded in XML or JSON, and requests are made via HTTP or other web protocols. A Webdienst can be discovered, invoked, and integrated without knowledge of the underlying implementation.

Webdiensten are characterized by interoperability, language- and platform-independence, and loose coupling between consumer and provider. RESTful Webdiensten emphasize stateless interactions and uniform resource identifiers; SOAP-based services rely on a formal protocol and sometimes require a formal service description. Discovery and governance often rely on API catalogs or registries, though many services are documented directly via developer portals.

Historically, Webdienst technology evolved from SOAP-based services in the late 1990s to the wide adoption of REST and JSON in the 2000s and 2010s. Today, Webdiensten underpin many public and private APIs, enabling functionalities such as payment processing, weather data, and social networking integrations.

Security and reliability practices for Webdiensten include the use of TLS encryption, API keys, OAuth 2.0, and token-based authentication, along with rate limiting, versioning, and structured error handling. Performance considerations include caching, content negotiation, and appropriate data formats to minimize latency.