Architecture question: should I use a web service as back end to my web front end?

[Karen Sundquist]

Hi
I have a SQL/IIS web app whose functionality I would like to expose to
other systems. If I build a web service for my app, should I then
convert my existing web front end to use the web service as its
server? If I do this then there will be a single functional back-end
to maintain. This is clean. However I worry that the performance for
web clients will be terrible because of the extra layer.
What should I do?

Thanks!

Karen

 

[Saurabh Nandu]

hi Karen,

Web Service Performance is still a problem, and it will take some time for
the technology to mature before you can use it that way.

What you could do is call the Web Service classes directly in your Web
Application by "Add Reference" -> Choose the compiled Dll of the web
service.

This way external clients will invoke the web service, while you will invoke
the class directly without going the SOAP way.

Regards,
Saurabh Nandu
[MVP]