I use XMLSpy, it is extremely powerful and has some good
editing/validating tools expecially for XML Schema

But the WSDL editor has some bugs - in particular in does create the odd
spurious entry, which have to be removed manually
The XML Schema editor has some bugs - there is at least one XML Schema
construct which technically legal is rejected by XMLSpy, and at least
two which whilst illegal are accepted by XMLSpy (and I've discovered
most of this the hard way!)

MindReef SOAPScope is also worth looking at - this doesn't do any WSDL
generation but does

A) validate the WSDL against the WS-I profile (the latest cut of the SRW
WSDL which I really must find time to get Ray to put up on LoC passes
this!)
B) generate some nice web form interfaces for interacting with the
service (ala the XMLSpy debugger).

Matthew


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Z39.50 Next-Generation Initiative [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
> On Behalf Of LeVan,Ralph
> Sent: 09 July 2004 14:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: FW: Web Service Development Practices and Tools
> 
> Matthew, since you seem to have hand built our WSDL, do you 
> have an opinion for Harold?
> 
> Any other opinions are welcome!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Ralph
> 
> _____________________________________________
> From: Cheney,Harold
> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 6:55 PM
> To: LeVan,Ralph; [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Web Service Development Practices and Tools
> 
> I'm interested in thoughts on best practices for developing 
> web services. I'm developing a web service for the ILL 
> system. For my first attempt, I generated the web service 
> using the Axis java2wsdl tool, but I'm not satisfied with the 
> resulting wsdl. I'd like to have more control over element 
> names and order, annotations, and metadata such as whether 
> elements are nillable. Generating the wsdl from scratch would 
> give me control, but it would be a lot more effort. Another 
> option would be to generate the wsdl, and then tweak it by hand.
> 
> Does anybody have any suggestions for tools? I evaluated 
> XMLSpy and I like it, but I doubt I can convince my 
> management to shell out the $1000 for it. There are cheaper 
> XML editors, but I haven't seen anything else with the same 
> SOAP debugging capabilities.
> 
> Harold Cheney
> 
> OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
> 
>