how to update server-side object fields

[SW...@Informatica.com]

Hi,
 
The problem i face has to do with updates of fields of server-side objects.
 
I do not want my web service to expose a set method for each field
(granularity too fine). An alternative would be to use a hashmap containing
the fields to be updated. However, this makes it impossible to do some
compile-time checking. E.g. check for updates of read-only fields.
 
Another approach would be to introduce a specific type that clients can use
to call update methods. However in this case the client must copy values
from the fields it reads to the update object. 
 
Does somebody knows an alternative?
 
I realize that the following problem not has to do with Axis in particular.
If you know an alternative newsgroup please let me know, i'll post it there.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
 
Stephan