Transmitting XML between different applications

[Mukul Gandhi <mukul_gandhi@yahoo.com>]

Hello,
I have a requirement to pass XML between 2 different
applications. The 2 applications are running on
different machines, and are Java based. The sender
application will generate XML to be sent, and would
send the XML to the receiving application. 

I want to know the possible approaches for this.

The following two approaches are coming to my mind.
1) Create a DOM object at the sending application, and
send this DOM object to the recieving application. I
have some doubt with this approach.. I think, that
with this approach, if XML parser being used at both
applications is same, it won't be a problem. But lets
say, if "Java XML parser" used by 2 applications is
different (but both conform to DOM specification),
will this approach work(for e.g., the sending
application is using Xerces, while receiving
application is using Oracle implementation)? 

Lets say, if I create a DOM object at the sending
application using Xerces, like this -

Document doc= new DocumentImpl();
Element root = doc.createElement("person");  
Element item = doc.createElement("name");      
etc..
Here Document is an interface (defined in package
org.w3c.dom) , while DocumentImpl is a concrete
class(defined in package org.apache.xerces.dom).

And I send the "doc" object to the recieving
application. If the receiving application is using an 
"Oracle Java XML parser", will it be able to parse the
recieved DOM object?

2) Encode XML as string at the sending application,
and send this XML string to the receiving appliction.

I want to compare the above approaches from
feasibility and performance point of view. I also want
to know other approaches..

As a secondary requirement, I want to make the XML
transmission reliable(i.e. guranteed and 1 time
delivery). I belive, I can use messaging softwares for
this (like WebSphere MQ and others). What are the best
practices for reliable transmission? Should I pass DOM
object, String.. etc.?

Later, it might be possible that 2 participating
applications may run on different technologies (like
J2EE and .NET). What are the possible XML
transmission(i.e. creation, transmission and finally
consuming) techniques in this scenario? 

Regards,
Mukul


		
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