Russ, You have to compare apples with apples: not all web services work the same way. CFMX web services built using cfcomponents with access="remote" are "heavy duty" web services that use SOAP to pass messages, publish a WSDL file to document their interface and check things like parameter datatypes. All this stuff is a pain to do by hand, but once again cf comes to the rescue and makes something complex very easy for 80+% of cases. If your developer had had to do all these things by hand in CF5 then the answer to "what do you gain" would most probably be "time".
Having said that, there's a lot of discussion out there about how SOAP based web services may well be overly complex for most simple uses - especially in cases like yours where you are both the publisher and the consumer of a web service, or in cases when you have a small number of simple in parameters. Now if you were publishing a web service that had to be consumed by another team (maybe even in another time zone) using a different technology, then SOAP based web services have one great advantage - tool support. Turn the problem on its head: if you had to consume a web service produced by somebody else, would you rather use cfhttp then some kind of parsing on the result, or just use a single cfinvoke tag? The ability to do the second depends on SOAP based web services... just my 0.02$ /t >-----Original Message----- >Subject: Cfhttp vs web services >From: "Russ Michaels" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:15:07 +0100 >Thread: >http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm/method=messages >&threadid=41634&forumid=4#214306 > >I recently had an interesting question from one of our >developers that I >had a hard time answering. > >Had had an app that required web services, but it was written >in CF5, so >rather than move to CFMX, he just wrote a bunch of pages that >could have >forms posted to them, with the commands in the form fields. >Then accessed >this from elsewhere using CFHTTP. > >He then said, what is the difference between doing this and using web >services, what would the web services allow him to do that he >had not done >with this solution. And to be honest I really can't think of a >good reason >why he should have used CFMX web services instead, as this >does produce the >same result and can be used form any of the other platforms. >Whereas if we >had used a CFMX web service, I know we likley would have had >problems with >SOAP requests. > >russ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:214342 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
