ajax call to a web service and cross-domain issues..

ajax call to a web service and cross-domain issues..

Is it possible to use $.ajax to call an external web service directly, or do I need to write a dot net server-side wrapper to consume the web service, then call the wrapper from jQuery ?

I have attempted a direct call as shown below, which works fine in IE but generates an error in Firefox, which I presume relates to the cross-domain scripting issue.


            $.ajaxSetup({ cache: false });

            $.ajax({
                type: "GET",
                url: "http://services.aonaware.com/DictService/DictService.asmx/Define",
                data: "word=" + $("#txtWord").val(),
                dataType: "xml",
                success: function(xml) {
                    var name = "";
                    var word_def = "";
                    var buf = "";
                    $(xml).find("Definition").each(function() {
                        name = $("Name", this).text();
                        buf += "<b>Dictionary:</b>&nbsp;" + "<label>" + name + "</label>" + "<br />";
                        word_def = $("WordDefinition", this).text();
                        buf += "<b>Definition:</b>&nbsp;" + word_def + "<br />";
                        buf += name + "<hr />";
                    });
                    $("#sec01").html(buf);
                },
                error: function(xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
                    alert(xhr.status);
                    alert(ajaxOptions);
                    alert(thrownError);
                }
            });