Sorry guys, I think my last posting (on RPC being easier) was noise borne of frustration [see next] which I should have channeled more productively. I suspect a Document verses RPC argument will still be raging in years to come, and I suspect the answer is simple --- both have their place --- I merely knee jerked to the defense of RPC based off a bad afternoon w/ AXIS and Document style, and what I felt was a sweeping generalization.
To what matters: I switched to AXIS from SOAP 2.2 in part to gain interoperability w/ .Net --- a stated goal of AXIS. I've picked up SOAP encoding simplicity, I don't need to solve that problem any more, but it seems that the problem has moved. AXIS likes RPC style, and .Net defaults to Document style (even for IMHO RPC type things). I was fighting AXIS [which I beleive has reasonably limited DII support for Document style, even though I've read the AdminClient, read stubs generated by WSDL2Java, and have now *once* made it work] especially in respect to building documents to match the types specified in the WSDL. Now AXIS is doing lots of wonderful things, and I am sure it is somebody elses pervue to convert XSD schemas to/from DOM, but it sure would be nice to have the one stop shop, like one gets with AXIS for RPC. Something that helps me build the simple document (especially when it is simple) and call, almost like I was calling RPC. Personally, I start to question what Document style over SOAP gives over Document's sent over HTTP [or other] it is a thin pipe, but I am sure greater experts will explain plug-in points for security/signing/transport abstrations, etc. I am sure there may be a benefit, but it starts to get a bit fuzzy for me. That said, if AXIS [as a client as well as server] is to be interoperable with .Net then I feel there needs to be some more work put in to the DII aspects of AXIS, a tighter integration of the types/XSD in the WSDL w/ the AXIS APIs, and so forth. If not that -- then at least a slightly enhanced API (so I don't have to use StringBufferInputSteam, a deprecated class, but a Reader or other) to work w/ my various flavours of XML/data. Note: I know it is all time and commitment. I am getting more and more familair w/ AXIS, and perhaps I can help here, but for now [as I am still getting inside the AXIS code] I can give feedback as I find it. (Hopefully a bit more considered than the previous knee jerk.) P.S. If anybody knows why I am gettign the RPCBodyElement return (in the other other posting, and I merely assume bug) please let me know. For now I'll do what AdminClient does, I'll cast it to SOAPBodyElement, do a toString() to extract the XML, then re-parse & process. regards, Adam
