Differences between Document Style vs RPC style WS.

Question

Hello All,
Can some body explain me the differences between a document style and rpc style webservices. Apart from JAX-RPC next version is JAX-WS, which supports document style and rpc, I also studied that document style webservices are meant for Asynchronous style of communication, where client would not block until the response is received.
In either way of writing services using JAX-WS, I currently annotate the service with @Webservice, generage the WSDL and from that WSDL I generate the client side artifacts.
Once the artifacts are received, in both styles of communication, I invoke the method on the port. Now, this does not differ in rpc style and document style. So what is the difference and where is that difference visible.
Similarly, in what way SOAP over HTTP differ from XML over HTTP. After all SOAP is also XML document with SOAP namespace. So what is the differnce here.

Answer 1

user13126996 wrote:
Can some body explain me the differences between a document style and rpc style webservices. Apart from JAX-RPC next version is JAX-WS, which supports document style and rpc, I also studied that document style webservices are meant for Asynchronous style of communication, where client would not block until the response is received. no, asynchronous vs. synchronous responses have nothing to do with rpc style vs. document style. they are two orthogonal concepts.
Once the artifacts are received, in both styles of communication, I invoke the method on the port. Now, this does not differ in rpc style and document style. So what is the difference and where is that difference visible.the difference is basically in how the data is encoded over the transport layer. in theory, you can encode some complex data structures more efficiently in the rpc style. in reality, no one ever uses these features. and since the document style is more strongly typed and much more "straightforward", most people tend to prefer the document style to the rpc style these days. (in fact, i don't think jaxws actually supports rpc style).
Similarly, in what way SOAP over HTTP differ from XML over HTTP. After all SOAP is also XML document with SOAP namespace. So what is the differnce here. none really. SOAP over HTTP is XML over HTTP. XML over HTTP has no strong specification, whereas SOAP puts lots of specs around what the XML should look like. also, obviously, SOAP can theoretically be sent over other transport layers besides HTTP (not that i've ever seen that).