Basic tests on using soap to communicate between a perl server and a java client are going well - getting things running ( after a few teething problems ) with Apache::Soap in java and Soap::lite in perl have so far been relativly easy - although the tests have been very trivial.
Now though, its time to try to send more complex packs of data across. Rather than try to parameterise every last attribute ( which would be total and utter madness ) After a fair bit of reading I think using an xml marshalling toolkit would be a good way to go about sending large complex objects over the wire. So far I've been using Castor in java, but a java literate friend has been most helpfull in suggesting a few alternatives. I was wondering if anyone knew of a marshalling framework in perl that would interoperate with a framework in java, or if its time for me to get out my best coding axe and start cutting code?
If you want to move complex XML data with SOAP, use xlink and attached a (preferably suitably compressed and then encoded) MIME attachment.
You should be using SOAP to access and run methods on objects at the server, possibly passing small simple objects or data as arguments.
Re:uh? SOAP is not IIOP!
lilstevey on 2005-02-21T17:20:47
My opinion of corba is that I've heard of it, but seem to have this idea from somewhere that it's quite complex and unweildy, and building on these prejudices, may well be overkill for the task in hand. I doubt I'm alone in this probable misconception.
Having said that it could well be the best tech for the job, and I'm not so biased that I wouldn't contemplate a bit of CORBA on my CV if it was the right way to go, but I would have to overcome the hurdles associated with the perceived misconceptions about it.
So, and purely from a hypothetical PHB angle, I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of some advocacy material, perhaps a couple of tutorials which I could garner proof of concept material from, or similar?
Re:uh? SOAP is not IIOP!
TeeJay on 2005-02-21T19:05:51
CORBA is heavyweight development wise, but on-the-wire is faster and lighter once running than parsing and processing or transforming uncompressed XML.If you are moving a lot of complex objects around then CORBA is probably a better bet than SOAP.
I was thinking more along the lines of using SOAP better by simplifying what you do with SOAP, this can be done by providing a nice compressed XML file attached to the webmessage and only passing as simple as possible stuff around. The S in SOAP is for Simple after all.
If you are investing resources (time/effort/money/cpu/maintainence) into XML marshalling and wasting bandwidth and cpu moving and processing a shedload of complex XML representing complex objects then naturally you are probably better off using a tool designed for the job.
