Chapter 3 Service Endpoint Design

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3.7.2 Separating Document Manipulation from Processing Logic

When your service's business logic operates on the contents of an incoming XML

document, the business processing logic must at a minimum read the document, if

not modify the document. By separating the document manipulation logic from the

processing logic, a developer can switch between various document manipulation

mechanisms without affecting the processing logic. In addition, there is a clear divi 

sion between developer skills. 

E

It is a good practice to separate the XML document manipulation logic from 

the business logic.

The  Abstracting XML Processing from Application Logic  section on page

155 provides more information on how to accomplish this separation and its

merits.

3.7.3 Fragmenting XML Documents

When your service's business logic operates on the contents of an incoming XML

document, it is a good idea to break XML documents into logical fragments when

appropriate. When the processing logic receives an XML document that contains all

information for processing a request, the XML document usually has well defined

segments for different entities, and each segment contains the details about a spe 

cific entity. 

E

Rather than pass the entire document to different components handling various 

stages of the business process, it's best if the processing logic breaks the doc 

ument into fragments and passes only the required fragments to other compo 

nents or services that implement portions of the business process logic.

See  Fragmenting Incoming XML Documents  on page 153 for more details

on fragmentation.

3.7.4 Using XML 

XML, while it has many benefits, also has performance disadvantages. You should

weigh the trade offs of passing XML documents through the business logic process 

ing stages. The pros and cons of passing XML documents take on greater signifi 

cance when the business logic implementation spans multiple containers. Refer to