well....sheeeit!  I am trying to find the EASIEST solution - screw writing
WSDLs and any other XML files!

I tried the Sun tutorial, but it would a fanatic 12 weeks to go through that
one.

I tried the Axis tutorial and it made no REAL WORLD sense at all.

I tried the Oracle JDeveloper and JBuilder Webservices modules and they
suck.

I DO NOT WANT TO WRITE XML - THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!


What's the solution?  I have pressure all over me to create Web services for
every f*cking application in the ..... department.  What gives?  It seems to
me that Web services has been way totally overhyped and it delivers nothing
of value.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 1:48 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Project from hell?


#1:

You must be joking! There are more than 2000 DIFFERENT elements and complex
types. The problems tend to lie within the generated code and are not
obvious until you try to use that code...then you find that it doesn't work.
I wasted way too much time trying make changes to the Axis-generated code
before giving up. I concluded that Axis was an order of magnitude away from
where I needed it to be in terms of complex payloads (though that perception
might have been biased by the enormity of the SCS XML Schema). So I use Axis
for connectivity (it's great at this, of course) and insert XML documents
(that I generate) as document-literal content.

Well, okay, I'll check it out over the weekend and file a bug report :-)


#2:

No. I understand that nowadays some folks use Castor in cases like this.
Three years ago my customers needed something like a JAXB that supports the
whole of XML Schema and connected to databases. There wasn't anything then
so I wrote XchainJ. This product is now in version 2.3 and runs as a fully
integrated Eclipse Plugin. This isn't a commercial plug though because,
oddly enough, I find life is easier if I don't sell it! XchainJ is great for
really complex XML but, unfortunately, it has been my experience that people
who have a requirement for this are not the sort of people who have the
technical expertise to use it! They tend to be scientists not Java
programmers. I could ramble on at length about user perceptions, etc. but I
won't. When I work face-to-face with customers they really appreciate the
product and either use it themselves or pay me to use it. Typically, I can
turn around a project that would take a week using Castor, JAXB, etc. in two
or three hours with XchainJ (it does XML/Java/DBMS interoperability). The
whole process of dealing with potential customers in other countries and
over the Internet is more trouble than it's worth.

Interestingly, I presented XchainJ to the technical director of a company
that sells Java software (on the basis that they could do the marketing,
etc.). The guy thought the product was great but found he was unable to
explain to his marketing folk what it did in terms that they could
understand! If they are not experts, people seem to get fogged beyond a
certain level of complexity.

It's a crazy situation: we have XML Schema that scientists are running with
and producing very complex structures BUT they don't have the expertise to
implement solutions. Then there's the computer industry that, while
populated with developers who can work on complex projects and after great
effort can produce solutions, has mainstream tool vendors that are
completely out of touch with anything other than trivial XML! Some
commercial products have been written by programmers who were under the
impression that there will only ever be one XML Schema document that targets
a given namespace. They generate error like "I've encountered this namespace
before, what are you giving it to me again for!". Still other won't go
beyond a maximum of just one XML Schema document referenced from WSDL. GML
comprises 27 XML Schema documents that target the GML namespace (plus others
for xlink, etc.) (and GML is a basis schema that users are _intended_ to
incorporate as a component of other schemas).

An NGO approached me a year ago with a project that they had only a month to
complete. It uses the CSDGM DTD (a.k.a. FGDC). They went to a big software
development company before they approached me and were told (i) something
that complex couldn't be done and (ii) if it could be done there's no way it
could be done within a month. Using XchainJ 1.1, I completed the entire
project in one day. Had I had XchainJ 2.3 then, it would have taken half a
day.

In a similar vein, my customers currently need XML Schema support in
rich-clients. The sort of support that doesn't exist today. They are going
to get it in XchainJ 3.x. As I said earlier, there's a disconnect between
the complexity supported by the computer software industry and the
complexity required by scientists. While the Eclipse folks are working on
SWT-designer support, I'm working on 'XML Schema / SWT rich-client with
connections to controlled content web services plus authentication,
authorization, XML document management, etc.' support in a generic tool. An
order of magnitude disparity.

Now, if only I was a marketeer instead of  a programmer... :-)


Warmest regards,

Jeff

Cogent Logic Corporation
Toronto, Canada



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Davanum Srinivas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: Project from hell?


> A few questions:
>
> #1: Can you please open a bug report with a pointer to the schema that
fails?
> #2: Did you try using any JAXB implementation against the schema?
>
> thanks,
> dims
>
> On Fri, 14 May 2004 12:03:14 -0400, Jeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > On a similar note, there's a disconnect between the capabilities of
tools
> > created by the software industry and the requirements of the scientific
> > community.
> >
> > I have just completed a particular type of Open GIS Consortium (OGC) web
> > service called a Sensor Collection Service. The XML Schema referenced
from
> > the WSDL file comprises 54 XML Schema documents spanning 15 namespaces.
Not
> > only did the Axis bean code baulk at this but, when I had completed the
> > project, clients found that the .NET tools couldn't handle anything like
the
> > complexity of the SCS XML Schema. Consequently, I supplied 'client
> > software'.
> >
> > The originators of SOAP are conning the software world and no one seems
to
> > mind!
> >
> > If it's legitimate to distribute platform-independent data (XML) it must
be
> > legitimate to distribute the program logic that uses that data. If only
we
> > had a platform-independent way to deliver program logic!
> >
> > Forcing web service clients, as a matter of fiat, to write their own
program
> > logic is the antithesis of OOP: interfaces, inheritance, polymorphism
all
> > exits to promote reuse. Reuse is the Holy Grail of software development.
> >
> > It could be argued that each client has their own needs and so it's not
> > possible to write generic client-side code. Such an argument is false.
The
> > fact that XML Schemas are used to formalise the data transmitted within
SOAP
> > envelopes means that each web service is necessarily
application-specific
> > and, as such, is tractable to low-level client code. Such code exposes
data
> > (in the form of XML, if appropriate) that can then be used in whatever
way
> > the ultimate consumer-code requires.
> >
> > I recently wrote a web service for the Government of Canada that
provided
> > document-literal content in the form of Web Ontology Language (OWL).
> > Everyone was pleased with the outcome and loved the OWL implementation
BUT
> > the first thing they did was to nominate someone to write a generic
client
> > that dealt with the XML and provided the desired content through a Java
> > component that everyone could use/reuse. Hey, that's an idea...I wonder
if
> > we could supply Java client-side code with our web services. That way,
the
> > .NET folks and all other non-Java folks could continue to do what they
do
> > and the sane software developers can get back to the preferred paradigm
of
> > using portable code.
> >
> > XML and Java go together. Sun and all other interested parties seem to
be
> > blind to the fact that making portable client-side code an integrated
web
> > service deliverable would make those services far more viable. Not
everyone
> > wants to get into WSDL, etc. when they could simply use a bean! SOAP and
web
> > services are infrastructure. Folks who use my web services want turnkey
> > solutions. For them it's about access to scientific data. They want to
> > operate at a higher level of abstraction than SOAP!
> >
> > Warmest regards,
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> > Cogent Logic Corporation
> >
> > Toronto, Canada
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Galbreath, Mark A" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 11:22 AM
> > Subject: RE: Project from hell?
> >
> > > EXACTOMUDO!  :-(
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Sherman, Dennis (END-CHI) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 9:12 AM
> > >
> > > Your task sounds to me suspiciously like someone at an executive level
> > > having heard about web services, and thinking they've found the silver
> > > bullet to all their problems.
> >
> >

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