web service on a unix PC

[eja2000]

is it possible to create a web service on a unix/linux PC that can be consumed by a .NET Application?
If so how can i do this?
Thanks

 

[sedj]

There are a couple of web service frameworks out there, one by Sun (JWSDP) and one by Apache (Axis). After using both, I would say Axis is brilliant. Check out the JAX-RPC examples - this will let you publish a web service. And, yes, our web service is consumed by a client running .NET.

Axis :

http://ws.apache.org/axis/

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[chiph]

Sedj -
Any comments on limitations of data that can be passed back & forth? I would assume that you need to restrict yourself to simple datatypes, like strings, integers, etc. and not try and pass full objects.

Chip H.


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[sedj]

The datatypes are pretty much the same as you would see in IDL, C, or Java - doubles, ints, strings, floats, longs etc. You may also send binary data as long as it is base64 encoded (I think frameworks usually do this for you if you return a byte[] array from a method, but I usually do it explicitly). So in theory, you could serialize any (Serializable) object into a byte[] array, convert it to base64, and send that over the network with no problems.

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[chiph]

The only catch being ... the class on the distant end would need to know how to deserialize your base64 string, right?

I think this is what I was concerned about -- when both ends are using the same technology (whether Java or .NET), it's pretty easy because you can deploy a class to both ends that knows how to do it. But when you're in a mixed environment (Java on one end, .NET on the other), you have to write two classes, and the format of their serialized string has to be identical.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[sedj]

I'm not so sure Chip... we send base64 encoded map images via SOAP. The server is written in Java (using Axis) and the client is in ASP. They have no problems decoding the data (image) ... the WSDL describes the kind of data being sent ...

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[chiph]

OK, by telling the client that the Base64 data is a PNG or JPEG, you handle that situation, because both data structures are well understood.

Thanks.
Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first