Getting Inconsistent Results from Web Service

Question

We have a web service that provides Qty Available for several item numbers (current 252 item numbers). It takes in an array of item numbers to be checked. It returns an xml file with those item numbers and the qty available, which is drawn directly from a single table that is repopulated every fifteen minutes. Our customer said that his system shows a different number of records returned each time with consecutive polls.
I tested the service using the endpoint testing web page. (I hope that's the correct term - I am fairly new to this.) I manually entered 175 item numbers.
The first result set had a block of 74 item numbers missing from the middle. The second result set returned everything.
Sample data excerpt:
   <ns0:result>
    <ROWSET>
     <ROW
       num="1">
      <ITEM_NBR>K5-8PE-RD</ITEM_NBR>
      <QTY_AVAILABLE>442</QTY_AVAILABLE>
     </ROW>
    </ROWSET>
   </ns0:result>
   <ns0:result>
    <ROWSET>
     <ROW
       num="1">
      <ITEM_NBR>K5-8PE-WH</ITEM_NBR>
      <QTY_AVAILABLE>5650</QTY_AVAILABLE>
     </ROW>
    </ROWSET>
   </ns0:result>
   <ns0:result
     xsi:nil="1"/>
   <ns0:result
     xsi:nil="1"/>
   <ns0:result
     xsi:nil="1"/>Does this make sense?
Thanks,
Gregory

Answer 1

Turns out the problem was in the Java method. It seems it was opening a new connection for each item number and not closing them.
Changed code to open the connection once, run through the item list, then close the connection.