Summary

We have looked at a few of the available technologies for working with and manipulating XML data: DOM, SAX, and XSL. When working with entire documents, remember that the DOM is most effective. If you want to work with only a small section of a document, through a search or query, or want to develop your own logical model, the SAX API will likely be a better choice. Whenever you want to map XML data from one schema to another or want to format your data for presentation, turn to XSL. You will find yourself frequently using a combination of these technologies in a single application.

It is easy to blur these technologies together because most vendors package implementations together into a single control or library. As developers, it is important that we distinguish between these approaches, because a poor choice can be the difference between a Web service application that is fast and scalable and one that is slow and bulky.

These technologies will be the building blocks of our applications for both providing and consuming Web services. The same is true of any application that works extensively with XML. Without some knowledge of these technologies, taking advantage of Web services would be difficult, if not impossible. With that said, let's start applying this knowledge to Web services!