A web service allows for data transfer between platforms or languages. It uses PHP code to perform operations like inserting, deleting, fetching, and updating data in a database. The web service code connects to the database using a connection file that contains login credentials. It then decodes request parameters, fires SQL queries to perform the requested operation, and encodes the response. URLs are used to check the operation by passing parameters to specify things like the table row ID, field names, and new values.