Thanks for the replies. Some additional info / thoughts:
- As for tooling, we're an IBM shop. So it's WAS 5.0.2 and WSAD. Most developers are using WSAD 5.0.x, but those writing these API's will use 5.1 since we understand it to be JSR 109 compliant. We don't have a solid grasp on the tooling of our business partners, but we know there are lots of platforms in the mix (Windows, HP/UX, Solaris, Tandem, MVS, Linux). On our side, we anticipate fully testing for .Net and J2EE web service clients.
- The majority (75%) of these API's are also currently offered via a FTP-type batch file exchange. We currently allow our customers an option to send and receive XML files. In this regard, we have lots of XSD's and SAX parsing logic for the business entities.
- I understand what you mean regarding the versioning. We will definitely be faced with XSD versioning anyway because of our batch interface. But the thought was that Web Service versioning would add an additional layer to that picture. We saw the need to supply versioned WSDL files, JavaBeans or EJB's, etc.
- Also with respect to the existing XDS schemas, another goal would be to reuse the schemas (as much as possible). Not sure how feasible this would be with the WSDL since the existing XSD's were not designed with Web Services in mind. Didn't see it as easy as importing the definitions in the type section of the WSDL.
- If you could, please expand on what you see as an issue on the encoding piece. In option 2 that was mentioned, the parameter and return type would be String, not Any, no? Where is the encoding complexity coming into play. I will mention that we do need to exchange TIFF images in some of the messages.
- Oh, we anticpiate these being purely RPC type services. No one-ways or async stuff. Not wure about RPC vs. Document yet. I was leaning more toward Document style given its flexibility.
Thanks for the feedback and advice.
P.S. Kyle, since you're with IBM, an chance you know Kerry Holly, Stu Lipshires, Dave Jones (COE), or Paul Glezen (COE)? Just curious ...