Thanks, everybody for your replies. They were all very helpful. It sounds
like my idea of using XML-RPC would be the less painful approach. I have
gotten XML-RPC to work on .NET, but haven't tried it with OFBiz yet.

Re: The QB Web Connector: That was where I started, but the problem is that
you have a canned client (QBWC) that you can't change, so you need to build
the service to be compatible with the client. Given the state of SOAP in
OFBiz this turned out to be too big of an obstacle, at least for me.

I agree with David that XML/JSON-RPC are attractive options, and I think I'm
going to go that route. But your reply prompts me to make a comment about
the open source world in general:

Coming from a .NET background (but quickly recovering!), it's very
frustrating for me to have to wade through discussions about specifications
and standards, Java data types vs .NET data types, this protocol is better
than that protocol because it only uses 547 bytes instead of 613 bytes, etc.
etc. etc. Now, I have a master's degree in software engineering, so it's not
that I don't understand that stuff. It's just that I shouldn't have to.

When I write a .NET program to make SOAP calls to Salesforce, it just works.
I don't even have to worry about what version of SOAP I'm using (or they're
using). I have no idea what kind of web servers, database, programming
language, or operating system Salesforce is using. And I don't care, because
everything just works.

My point is this: If you want to improve adoption of any open source
platform or technology, it wouldn't hurt to shorten the list of things that
newcomers (like me) need to figure out. If I have to drill down through 17
layers of libraries, protocols, specifications, etc., then eventually my
brain is going to overflow and I'll just go work on something else where I
can make just as much money with fewer headaches (and fewer things that
might break for my clients). In the case of OFBiz, which I think is very
cool, when I get to the word "SOAP" that should be the end. I should be able
to say "OK, that's just SOAP. I get it. Now I'll go learn how to build a UI
or something." I guess I'm really talking about a change in attitude, where
it's not assumed that the application developer needs to understand every
line of code right down to the kernel.

Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a rant. But please take it in the
spirit in which it's intended: An idea that might help improve adoption of
OFBiz. I would certainly like to help contribute to that effort myself, if I
could just get 6 months of income in the bank :-)

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