Systems, methods and computer programs for implementing and accessing web services

A computer readable medium including a computer program that causes a computer to respond to a request from a client to a Web service, the computer program causing the computer to perform the steps of:

• a) processing the request to identify a resource file and a requested action, wherein the request is encoded in one of a plurality of protocols;
• b) accessing the resource file, the resource file including data describing the Web service;
• c) processing the request using at least a portion of the data to produce a response;
• and
• d) returning the response to the client.

A computer system comprising:

• a) a client adapted to send a request to a Web service;
• b) a middleware adapted to receive the request from the client;
• and
• c) a resource file accessible to the middleware, the resource file including data describing the Web service;
• wherein the middleware is adapted to identify the resource file and a requested action from the request, the request being encoded in one of a plurality of protocols.