What is the role of a Proxy in WebService ?

Proxy-based approach

This new approach introduces the proxy-based lightweight framework for providing the secure access to the Web services being requested by the clients. The basic idea is to deploy a proxy Web service that receives the request from the end client on behalf of the actual Web service. The proxy service authenticates the end client by validating the client's credentials, which he/she had sent along with the Web service request. If the client is authenticated successfully, he/she will be given access to the requested service.

The advantages of this approach are as follows:

It is based on message-level security.
It does not only authenticate the user, but also verifies the message integrity.
It doesn't disturb the actual Web service, which may be running on the production server.
It acts like a plug-in; it can be removed and replaced with any other solution at any point in time.
It hides the actual Web service; the process is abstracted from the client. The client would not know that his/her request has been intercepted and processed by a proxy.
Integrating new handlers, such as Auditing and Notification, is very easy. Whereas an auditing handler is for maintaining the service access information, a notification handler could be used for sending e-mails to the service providers in case of any problem in accessing the service.

Someone might now want to raise a question about the performance of the proxy approach. Because of the introduction of a proxy in the communication path of end service, the invocation time will be a little more. However, the performance figures are more acceptable.

For more information , please refer the following links.

http://www.developer.com/java/web/article.php/3320851/A-Proxy-Based-Approach-To-Secure-Web-Services.htm

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/ChrisBlake/GenericWebServiceProxy11232005080848AM/GenericWebServiceProxy.aspx

http://blog.bodurov.com/blog/Create-a-WCF-client-for-asmx-web-service-without-using-web-proxy

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/417535/net-web-service-without-proxy-class

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Accepted answer
Proxy-based approach

This new approach introduces the proxy-based lightweight framework for providing the secure access to the Web services being requested by the clients. The basic idea is to deploy a proxy Web service that receives the request from the end client on behalf of the actual Web service. The proxy service authenticates the end client by validating the client's credentials, which he/she had sent along with the Web service request. If the client is authenticated successfully, he/she will be given access to the requested service.
The advantages of this approach are as follows:
1. It is based on message-level security.
2. It does not only authenticate the user, but also verifies the message integrity.
3. It doesn't disturb the actual Web service, which may be running on the production server.
4. It acts like a plug-in; it can be removed and replaced with any other solution at any point in time.
5. It hides the actual Web service; the process is abstracted from the client. The client would not know that his/her request has been intercepted and processed by a proxy.
6. Integrating new handlers, such as Auditing and Notification, is very easy. Whereas an auditing handler is for maintaining the service access information, a notification handler could be used for sending e-mails to the service providers in case of any problem in accessing the service.
Someone might now want to raise a question about the performance of the proxy approach. Because of the introduction of a proxy in the communication path of end service, the invocation time will be a little more. However, the performance figures are more acceptable.
For more information , please refer the following links.
http://www.developer.com/java/web/article.php/3320851/A-Proxy-Based-Approach-To-Secure-Web-Services.htm
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/ChrisBlake/GenericWebServiceProxy11232005080848AM/GenericWebServiceProxy.aspx
http://blog.bodurov.com/blog/Create-a-WCF-client-for-asmx-web-service-without-using-web-proxy
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/417535/net-web-service-without-proxy-class
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