Hello, We are transfering java object representation of XML as data returned by a SOAP/WSDL webservice. I was under the impression that since its a object being returned by the webservice, we are using binary data transfer (as opposed to sending XML strings across).
However, i am a bit confused about the concept of binary serialization. Apparently this needs to be done for large data transfer. How is this different from what we are doing?
Thanks Sameer
The object you get on the client side is not the same object instance as on the server side. It is a newly constructed object created on the client side from the xml representation sent over the network.
For large data transfer (like copying files and such), I have always used MTOM in the past. Read up on how your Web Services stack (both on the client and the server) handle MTOM and see if this is what you want.
XML serialization is usually more verbose than an optimized binary serialization of the same data. For better interoperability though, XML is usually preferred for web services.
Hessian is an example of a binary web service protocol. SOAP is primarily XML based.