Re: [xml-dev] Web Service: SOAP or {HTML + Servlets}?

[Eric van der Vlist <vdv@dyomedea.com>]

Roger L. Costello wrote:


> I'd like to use SOAP for implementing Web Services.  It seems to be a
> fun technology to play with.  But, in good conscience, I am real hard
> pressed to see any advantage to it over HTML plus Servlets (or XML plus
> Servlets).  I am eager to be convinced otherwise, however.  What are
> your thoughts on this?  /Roger


Seeing the answers already posted (with which I agree), this is has to 
be a good question!

What I would like to add is that I wonder if it makes such a difference 
since SOAP is only a thin layer on top of a web architecture that's 
already there.

You can easily implement API like web services over HTTP+HTML (by 
defining a mapping between URIs and classes and methods and between post 
or get parameters and methods parameters and a mapping between your 
result structure and your HTML document).

Thanks to XML, you can also consider your SOAP requests and responses as 
XML documents and use any XML tool to generate a request when you 
receive a message.

The amazing thing with a XML document is, like with a book, that the 
meaning of the document is what the reader wants it to be and, as long 
as your response may be considered as valid by the SOAP client, you are 
free to attach the meaning you want to a SOAP request and process it 
with the tools and mind (document or data) you prefer.

Eric
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Eric van der Vlist       http://xmlfr.org            http://dyomedea.com
http://xsltunit.org      http://4xt.org           http://examplotron.org
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