Re: EGL, Java and PHP

Aaron Bartell skrev:

How much work would it be for example to create a scalable, standards

compliant web service which serves images, pdfs and excel sheets dynamically
from contents in a database table?

Depends on who is on the other end of the web service. If it is .NET then
any given upgrade it stands the potential to break. Microsoft is STILL
adopting web service standards before the rest of the world agrees on them
which causes issues for even Java programs wanting to make standardized
communication with them.

Can we agree that a proper implementation of web services is a non-trivial matter? :)

I'd be perfectly happy with saying a web site if that is better :D

Whether something is "standard" is quite a relative term I have found. Is
it standard according to the WS-* profiles?, standard according to the W3C?,
standard according to a JCP/JSR?, standard according to Microsoft? Web
services are soooooo over architected it is painful to watch them
(Microsoft) "progress to make things easier". Did you catch that Sun has
semi-formally made a move away from SOAP for many web services?
http://www.sdtimes.com/link/32959

I am aware of the REST concept as being something where you separate the data from the action (which is part of the URL instead) as opposed to SOAP where you basically do remote procedure calls according to the WSDL-contract. But having

I still believe the WSDL-contract is A Really Good thing even if everything else is a mess.

All this is still somebody trying to get Remote Procedure Calls right. Eventually it will happen :)