Nathan wrote
I can kind of see the point about wrapping a request in a SOAP Envelope,
but why would anyone ever wrap a response in one?
Maybe they want an object as a response? Maybe you want an object when you
make a request?
Maurice
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: 27 January 2012 23:48
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Web Services War Stories
Yeah, I don't want this discussion to consume my weekend either. But thanks
for the reply. I don't have experience with using Web Services
for Interoperability between disparate systems. But protocols based on WSDL
and SOAP throw up red flags in my mind when I read about them. I can kind of
see the point about wrapping a request in a SOAP Envelope, but why would
anyone ever wrap a response in one?
I'm impacted in a big way right now by a movement known as the School
Interoperability Framework (or SIF) which has grown over the past 10 years
and has become something of a barrier for small companies like ours to gain
traction in the market for Student Information Systems. The data model has
grown to 178 XML documents and something like 2,200 XML elements. A lot of
public entities are requiring software vendors to support the specification.
We have our work cut out for us.
-Nathan
----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc:
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Web Services War Stories
What do you think of WSDL and SOAP and associated frameworks?
After having lived in the space extensively for the past decade I can tell
you that most of the WSDL/SOAP stuff is a waste of time. Classic over
architecting in my book given how much of the spec is actually used.
That's not to say there aren't some good ideas in the technologies, but
they purposely didn't try to make they syntax easy to understand because
they assumed tools would abound and hide all of the technology.
At the end of the day my favorite types of web services are as simple as an
inbound HTTP POST with concise XML and then the same concise XML for the
response.
For example, a web service need be no more complex than this for the
majority of interactions.
<xml>
<p1>data</p1>
<p2>data</p2>
<parent>
<list>data</list>
<list>data</list>
<list>data</list>
</parent>
</xml>
Sure it needs to get more complex when talking about sending a full
purchase order, but many take it to crazy amounts of parent child
relationships in an effort to be organized.
I should probably get off my soap box before I get into a discussion that
ruins my weekend :-)
Aaron Bartell
www.MowYourLawn.com/blog
www.OpenRPGUI.com
www.SoftwareSavesLives.com
midrange.com
