Webservice Output

[POB]

Hi,

If you were given a webservice to access via SOAP.

One of the results is a PDF file.

Would you prefer:

1) To be given a link to the file, so you can transfer the file yourself
2) A binary transfer of the file included in the response from the webservice.

Thanks.

 

[Augmented]

Absolutely the former. Having something like a base64-encoded binary stream in the response is pretty nasty (I've had to deal with it before!). Better to keep the response as slim as possible, especially with something like SOAP where the payload tends to get pretty bloated.

Ultimately it depends on your prospective clients, and whether they're going to be able to make requests for PDF files over http etc.

 

[POB]

Thanks!

Its sometimes tricky to distinguish between what you can do and what you should do.