Real World XML Web Services: For VB and VB .NET Developers

2.10. Object Serialization

As you build Web services, you will find that XML messaging is a more natural fit compared to RPC. This means you'll find yourself designing Web services that send your data back and forth as XML documents. For example, the SubmitInvoice method you saw earlier accepts an invoice document, like that shown in Listing 2.8, in a String parameter. To process the invoice, the SubmitInvoice method needs to parse the invoice document (using a DOM parser for example), then read the data out of the document and use it to set the properties of an object from the Invoice class shown in Listing 2.9. This is called deserializing an object from XML. Similarly, if a client is trying to invoke the SubmitInvoice method, it might internally ...