That's a fair question. The answer is that doing without SOAP is in fact gaining momentum, and that approach is known as "REST". The http://faq.javaranch.com/java/WebServicesFaq links to many introductory articles on that subject.
So if you want security, reliability etc., you need SOAP (or you have to invent your own version of it and convince others to use it too .. good luck). Obviously not every scenario needs all that muscle ...
and
POX/HTTP means exchanging plain old XML documents over HTTP. RESTful POX, i.e. using XML in a RESTful manner, would mean POX is a subset of REST. Many, if not most POX applications don't care about REST very much, though � they'd thus be part of a distinct set of applications.
Regards, Dan
William Butler Yeats: All life is a preparation for something that probably will never happen. Unless you make it happen.
I work with an enterprise Search product called Autonomy and content management systems for the enterprise in which XML over HTTP is the standard practice.
Regards, Dan
William Butler Yeats: All life is a preparation for something that probably will never happen. Unless you make it happen.