question about database result sets...

[Dave Jacobson <da...@hotmail.com>]

I am working with a software company that develops in Java. Some of the functionality involves interaction with users via the web.  Some clients that use the software product would only like the back-end code and would like to implement the look and feel of their website on their own. In this case, we would like to provide a middle-tier set of classes to "hand off" code to other developers at clients.
I'd like to figure out the best way to implement this middle-tier between back-end database processing and front-end GUI code. The question is whether Axis is the proper tool.

More specifically, does Axis provide a way to easily handle displaying, modifying and deleting data returned from a query to a database where the query returns more than one row; i.e., a result set?  We would develop a middle-tier that would be responsible for getting the data from the database and then returning it but then a developer at a client would be responsible for displaying the data.  Because of this "hand off" we are looking for a smooth and easy interface.  Does Axis provide this type of easy hand-off?

RE: question about database result sets...

[Joe Shevland <jo...@e-wise.com>]

I ommitted the case where its Java on the client layer, because then you've
got a lot more flexibility; for some reason assumed you'd be using .NET on
the web layer... painful, but thats my world at the moment :)

Cheers,
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Shevland [mailto:joe.shevland@e-wise.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2004 7:56 PM
To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
Subject: RE: question about database result sets...


One solution is where the clients can pass an SQL SELECT statement to the
web service/s, and have an XML dataset returned (as a string), which happens
to be ADO.NET compliant [snip]

RE: question about database result sets...

[Joe Shevland <jo...@e-wise.com>]

One solution is where the clients can pass an SQL SELECT statement to the
web service/s, and have an XML dataset returned (as a string), which happens
to be ADO.NET compliant (I generate the schema and XML and return that, took
a bit of fiddling but it works fine), so the .NET folks can build a DataSet
based on the returned XML.

Its not the most efficient given the XML encoding/decoding, and currently
(my one) isn't streamed, so with big datasets you run into problems. A nicer
solution would be something that is streamed and/or attached as an
attachment instead (compressed binary etc). That said, it works well for all
of my uses. Of course, the resultsets are disconnected, so you can use a
combination of this and other web methods to then do your updates/actions
etc.

The security nazis^W folk may rightly cringe allowing SQL calls passed
through to the database/s, unless you've got pretty rigorous checks for the
incoming SQL, or another interface on top of that (one where clients can
supply parameters and so on, but don't get to generate the actual SQL - the
latter is far safer but far more tedious to code ;). Depends if there'll be
a lot of custom queries and so on... much nicer having a business API they
can talk to.

Cheers,
Joe
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Dave Jacobson [mailto:dave_jacobson@hotmail.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2004 6:02 AM
  To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
  Subject: question about database result sets...


  I am working with a software company that develops in Java. Some of the
functionality involves interaction with users via the web.  Some clients
that use the software product would only like the back-end code and would
like to implement the look and feel of their website on their own. In this
case, we would like to provide a middle-tier set of classes to "hand off"
code to other developers at clients.
  I'd like to figure out the best way to implement this middle-tier between
back-end database processing and front-end GUI code. The question is whether
Axis is the proper tool.

  More specifically, does Axis provide a way to easily handle displaying,
modifying and deleting data returned from a query to a database where the
query returns more than one row; i.e., a result set?  We would develop a
middle-tier that would be responsible for getting the data from the database
and then returning it but then a developer at a client would be responsible
for displaying the data.  Because of this "hand off" we are looking for a
smooth and easy interface.  Does Axis provide this type of easy hand-off?