There are many libraries available for developing Web Services clients or servers available for C/C++. These fall into two broad categories:

1. General purpose modules which implement Web Services technologies (i.e. REST or SOAP)
2. Service libraries which implement the client and/or server interface for a service type or for a specific service.

A selection of modules commonly used to access Web Services are listed below.

C/C++ libraries which implement Web Services technologies, for example:

Purpose built libraries for a type of service or a specific service, for example:

The EMBOSS libraries include support for a number of bioinformatics Web Services, for example:

Knowledge of the following is required for these tutorials:

• C/C++
• Extensible Markup Language (XML) ¹⁾
  • XML Tutorial from w3schools.com
• XML Schema ²⁾
  • XML Schema Tutorial from w3schools.com

The source code for the examples are available: c_cpp_exercises.zip

The download is based on the Eclipse CDT project used to develop the tutorials. The files are explicitly referenced in the tutorials and links provided to the on-line versions. Eclipse CDT is not required to work though the exercises, a text editor, a working C/C++ compiler installation and the make build tool are the only requirements.

To import the project into Eclipse:

1. Download and install Eclipse.
2. Install the Eclipse CDT plug-in for Eclipse if your installation does not include it.
3. Download the project
4. Unpack the project into a working directory
5. Import the project into Eclipse using “File” → “Import…”
   1. For “import source” select “General” → “Existing Projects into Workspace”
   2. Specify the working directory containing the project
   3. Select the project

Initially the project will contain errors due to some code generated as part of the exercises not being present.

Tutorials on using a selection of popular C/C++ libraries to develop clients for Web Services:

• REST
  • libcurl
• SOAP
  • gSOAP for C
  • gSOAP for C++