Best way of developing Web Service?

[MaheshASP]

Hi All,

I recently started working on .Net Web Services.

Eventhough i know how to use web services and working with them, i am missing the vital links for the ideal scenario.

Can any one explain me the ideal way of developing the web services.

I found the following things for ideal scenario

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Step 1 :Create a Schema manually or using some tools.

Step 2: Create the Type using xsd.exe

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i am struck after this.

Creating methods like Add a new Employee.

AddEmployee(???? as ????)

1. my question is, what is the ideal way (platform independent) for accepting data from the client so that i can validate against the Schema.

possibilities i know are :

xml document

Employee Object

string (datatype will be string but the data will be in xml format)

dataset

individual fields like empno, name , datateofjoin etc ?

2. what is the ideal way (platform independent) for returning data

possibilities i know are :

xml document

Employee Object

string (datatype will be string but the data will be in xml format)

dataset

3. How does my client know about the Schema (info like datatypes and lengths of indiviaul elements)

4. if Schema Validation fails, how am i going to notify the client about what data is not valid.

5. in what case do i need to serialize the data.

6. Do i have do Serialization and Deserialization myself by creating methods or .NET automatically handles this.

Thanks in Advance

Mahesh