To me, JSON is easy to use for simple data structure when trial and error is allowed. However, XML is better for complex data structure. And XML schema can help to avoid trial and error, and also it is easy to generate valid examples with the schema anywhere. For JSON, the example can only be obtained when the service is accessible and correctly consumed. The verbosity is the price to pay, since there is never free lunch. Like bad written HTML, the browser can still understand it somehow, but errors will happen sometime when you cannot expect.
In practice, I found Google is using both XML and JSON. When one wants to get all the information about a service, XML is the choice, and when one wants to get only part of information with simple structure, JSON is the choice. The most important, I think, is that the well structured XML and schema supply the contract that different develop groups can rely on and work on their own work simultaneously. Of course, some may argue that a JSON example can also play that role. I agree. Dong -- Dong Liu http://blogs.usask.ca/dong_notes/ On 3/16/07, Gervas Douglas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The question of XML's verbosity has been raised before in this Group. Do you consider it: (1) A significant impediment (2) Somthing we just have to live with (3) (2) does not really matter given the computing horsepower and network bandwidth commonly available? Gervas --- In [email protected]<service-orientated-architecture%40yahoogroups.com>, "Gervas Douglas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > <<First we had service-oriented architecture (the familiar SOA), now > we're getting "service-oriented infrastructure (SOI)," meaning people > in the IT world are starting to think seriously about what it will > take to keep SOAs up and running. > > One approach is grid computing which, at least in theory, can assign > appropriate resources to services as needed. Another, focused on a > higher level, is the single-vendor SOA suite, where the "plumbing" is > left to a single vendor, and heterogeneous interoperability is only a > concern at the level of services and applications. > > One of the biggest infrastructure concerns is SOA's use of XML, which > creates problems for networks because it is very verbose. This creates > higher network payloads and also eats up CPU resources because it > requires more processing. The problems with XML are so serious that > some developers have proposed an alternative, Javascript Object > Notation (JSON). > > But will these problems slow down the SOA steam roller? Few > consultants or analysts think so. Freeform Dynamics, for example, > recently conducted a survey on SOA take-up and concluded that SOA is > "completely unstoppable.">> > > You can read Stevens's infrastructural concerns at: > > http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/mia/index.php/54/soas-infrastructure-issues/ > > Gervas >
