I agree. Web Services, to me, are web pages that provide output that is generally not seen by an individual.
I created a simple application where a CF page queried an ASP page on our Exchange server. The ASP page gathered a bunch of mailbox information for a user, wrapped it up in a simple XML format, then displayed it on the screen. My CF page then "scraped" the page using CFHTTP, parsed the XML, then displayed that information to the user. It is very fast, it is very simple (except for the Exchange stuff) and is very stable. I would consider this a web service. I saw no need to jump to the level of SOAP for this project. But, as Tanguy mentioned, I was the creator and consumer of both parts. M!ke -----Original Message----- From: RADEMAKERS Tanguy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 9:15 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Cfhttp vs web services Russ, You have to compare apples with apples: not all web services work the same way. CFMX web services built using cfcomponents with access="remote" are "heavy duty" web services that use SOAP to pass messages, publish a WSDL file to document their interface and check things like parameter datatypes. All this stuff is a pain to do by hand, but once again cf comes to the rescue and makes something complex very easy for 80+% of cases. If your developer had had to do all these things by hand in CF5 then the answer to "what do you gain" would most probably be "time". Having said that, there's a lot of discussion out there about how SOAP based web services may well be overly complex for most simple uses - especially in cases like yours where you are both the publisher and the consumer of a web service, or in cases when you have a small number of simple in parameters. Now if you were publishing a web service that had to be consumed by another team (maybe even in another time zone) using a different technology, then SOAP based web services have one great advantage - tool support. Turn the problem on its head: if you had to consume a web service produced by somebody else, would you rather use cfhttp then some kind of parsing on the result, or just use a single cfinvoke tag? The ability to do the second depends on SOAP based web services... just my 0.02$ /t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:214350 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
