This session teaches developers how to get up and running in the field of Web services. The talk begins with an overview of Web services, highlighting their purpose and benefits. Along the way, developers will learn the strengths and weaknesses of SOAP, XML-RPC, and REST, the three major Web services protocols. After laying a theoretical foundation, the talk continues on to design considerations in real-life Web services. Using the eBay API as a case study, you'll see the factors a company needs to consider when deploying a Web service interface and how that influences their offerings. Finally, developers will learn how to implement Web services clients using PHP to access the eBay platform.