Large, Complex Objects as a Web Service Result [closed]

The .Net XML (de)serialisation is pretty nicely implemented. At first thought, I don't think this is a bad idea at all.

If the two applications import the same C# class(es) definition(s), then this is a relatively nice way of getting copy-constructor behaviour for free. If the class structure changes, then everything will work when both sides get the new class definition, without needing to make any additional changes on the web-service consumption/construction side.

There's a slight overhead in marshalling and demarshalling the XML, but that is probably dwarved by the overhead of the remote web service call. .Net XML serialisation is well understood by most programmers and should produce an easy to maintain solution.

I'm loving JSON for this kind of thing. I just finished a POC drop-things type portal for my company using jQuery to contact web services with script service enabled. The messages are lightweight and parsing etc is pretty much handled. The jQuery ajax stuff I read was here (loving it!) : jquery ajax article

I had some great answers on a very similar topic yesterday that might be useful for you:

Communication between javascript and the server