XML transport question

[Mark Birbeck]

SOAP and its precursor XML-RPC allow for methods to be executed on
remote servers and data to be passed in both directions. XML is used to
encode data of any type. SOAP is pretty easy to implement, and uses HTTP
so you don't have firewall problems, etc.

Although it's very general purpose, I found that for document transfer
specifically, you still ended up trying to address issues like locking
and versioning. I would therefore suggest you look at WebDAV, although
implementing that is a whole different ball-game. For a start, you need
to add new methods to your web server, so it depends on what expertise
you have access to, whether that's possible. We have just implemented a
WebDAV layer in C++, and we may turn the whole thing into an SDK. But
that's not likely to be anytime soon. I believe that WebDAV will find
it's way into many Microsoft products over the coming period, too.

So, to sum up: if you have full control over the two end-points, and
know what the traffic volume will be like, then SOAP should cover it. If
there could be issues of contention, such as using two or three servers
to send data at anytime to a central server, then look at WebDAV. The
latter scenario could be handled with SOAP - UserLand are using XML-RPC,
for example to cope with their discussion board - but you may want to
consider putting a layer just underneath, such as Microsoft Message
Queue, to make sure you cope with volume, and the remote requests don't
end up timing out.

As to security, just use whatever you would normally. Just ensure that
the server software passes the password and user name it has been
assigned. The socket software you use to initiate the connections should
handle that.

Regards,

Mark


Mark Birbeck
Managing Director
x-port.net Ltd.
220 Bon Marché Centre
241-251 Ferndale Road
London
SW9 8BJ
w: http://www.iedigital.net/
t: +44 (171) 501 9502
e: Mark.Birbeck at iedigital.net


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michele Lee [mailto:mclee at oblix.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 3:00 AM
> To: xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
> Subject: XML transport question
> 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have a two-part question on XML transport.
> 
> 1. If two application vendor want to transfer XML documents 
> to each other, is
> there a standard transport that is used?  When I say 
> transport, I mean web
> server communication using http protocol, etc.
> 
> 2. If web server is the transport, how do most vendors handle the
> authentication with the web server?  Do they write their own client to
> authenticate with the web server or are there software 
> available for that?
> 
> thanks,
> 
> --Michele
> 
> 
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