VOTable and Java Beans

[Alasdair Allan]

Matthew Graham wrote:
> Guy Rixon wrote:
> > Well, the web service itself is defined to return XML, so it will 
> > return VOTable; it can't return Java directly. In any case, a public 
> > service needs to support clients in many languages.
>
> Can I reiterate that my interest is in serializable Java representations
> of VOTable, i.e. VOTable as a Java bean, which seems bleeding edge and not
> in general passing of VOTable by web services in XML or other form, which 
> is well developed. I appreciate that I might have to resort to the latter
> if the former does not work but I have a specific Java service/client
> application in mind and so it seems silly not to try and use beans if at
> all possible.

I'd really like to hammer Guy's point home, not everyone uses Java,
passing around Java objects is not the way to go for a public service.

For private interfaces, its obviously fine, although you have to be (very)
careful because sometimes supposedly private interfaces become "public"
ones. However, public interfaces should be language neutral.

Cheers,
Al.
--
Dr. A. Allan, School of Physics, University of Exeter