Building a SQLXML Web Service Application "  Chapter 7 333 Summary We have gone through how to set up our SQL Virtual Root and target a specific database.We first set up our file system to mirror the virtual root, specifying the correct folders and names for each. From this we have been able to load and con- figure multiple stored procedures that we exposed as Web Services.We created methods within a class specific to each stored procedure within the database.This has, in a sense, tackled two problems at once relieving us from having to use ADO.NET to access the procs in our database in order to pass data We viewed the WSDL file generated by SQL, also noting that it is an XML file that can be edited and revised without going through the whole method setup.This file contains all the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) protocols necessary to communicate to the client application.These include the SOAP header and body and are contained within the SOAP envelope.We set each method to the same name as the stored procedure in order to keep it simple. Each method was also set to return a single dataset, which we then accessed via our client application that required a dataset for values. In our client application we created three simple pages.The main page is the Log In page.We added our Web reference, which pointed to the virtual SQL root that we created.This exposed all of the methods contained within the WSDL file via SQL.We then bound the resulting datasets to the Web controls, for instance the data grid control that shows the listing of projects and who is logged in.We also dynamically joined drop-down boxes to display other data like our listing of projects and employees. In conclusion we can see the many benefits of using SQLXML Web Services. We have looked at the possibility of upgrading current applications without redoing entire projects.This chapter also showed how you could use the versa- tility of SQLXML Web Services as opposed to using ADO (Active X Data Objects).This method of data interaction is cost effective in the way that a pro- grammer already has to create and use stored procedures when dealing with a database, so to leverage that same code for use in the client application is a huge benefit.This technology is in the very early stages and will undoubtedly change in the future, but the overall fundamentals will be the same.This is truly the beginning of a new frontier for developers. Good luck and code well! www.syngress.com