WS-I is forming it's base profile as I write this note. They are suggesting that all web services engines MUST support, at a minimum, doc/lit over the wire. This means that we must be able to export doc/lit WSDL, ie., provide a doc/lit flag on Java2WSDL. What sort of WSDL do we export? The same we do now except replacing rpc/encoding with document/literal? Or a .NET style (which the WS-I folks are viewing as a SOAP section 7 style - though I don't completely agree - I think Microsoft did things that shouldn't have been done - like essentially ignoring the message clause)? Just adding a flag on Java2WSDL doesn't go far enough. For instance, how will the runtime distinguish overloaded operations for an incoming doc/lit SOAP message? There are no xsi types in the message to give us hints. I'm sure there are other issues: arrays? multiref?
In essence, there is NO spec that maps WSDL doc/lit to a SOAP message (you'd think the WSDL spec would have provided a mapping, but it doesn't). Most of the items are fairly straightforward and most folks have made the same guesses. But without a spec, there are some issues, like overloaded operations, for which there is a good possibility for everyone to come up with a different solution. So what do WE do? See what others have done and try to toe the same line? Come up with our own 'spec' and implementation and hope others follow? Could someone who knows .NET tell us how they solve the overloaded operations problem? Russell Butek [EMAIL PROTECTED]
