Can every request send by ajax (xmlhttprequest) be called as web service request?

Question

I just started using angularjs with spring mvc as backend. I am using $resource for accessing my backend. I know this is a rest service and $resource is a module built with ajax. My doubts:

1) Is ajax used for consuming web service apis only?
2) Is ajax the only way to call web service function?

Answer 1

1) Is ajax used for consuming web service apis only

No, ajax is just a way of making HTTP/HTTPS requests, they can request anything that accepts such a request, but it is most commonly used for consuming web services/APIs.

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2) Is ajax the only way to call web service function

No, again, webservices are usually just exposing an endpoint for data, anything capable of making a HTTP/HTTPS request can call it, for example you can type http://www.mywebservice.com/api/get/1 in your browser and you will make a call to the web service and the data would be displayed in the browser.