>Is there somewhere I can find a clear step by step guide to deploying a web service to a remote Windows 2003 server?
>
>We have a project that would benifit greatly by reusing VFP code for data access by a web interface. We've made a web service that works very well when deployed using the wizards in VFP9 on my developer box and were starting to get excited about the possibilities until we hit a minefield trying to deploy this into a production environment.

Just communicating via SOAP / WebService is not that difficult. If that us your ONLY wish, and you are building the Web service I'ld reccommend checking out a more vfp based solution using for example wwSoap from WestWind.Com if you already have a nontrivial amount of reusable vfp code.

Seen from current projects the Soap Toolkit is lacking mostly as *client side tool* in the areas of communiating with java services returning complex objexts and working on some special WSDL types. *This* would not bother you, as you are building the service and therefore control the interface. Even clients generated by other languages/tools should have no problem accessing your web service.

Another area Soap toolkit is sorely lacking is the hightened security (especially when using client side certificates) sometimes implemented in currently offered web services. IMHO your needs in *that* area should decide which way to go: use .Net if you always want to use the latest security ideas, stay with vfp and [wwSoap or other vfp toolkit] if there is no need [by law for example] to encrypt your data with the latest craze. Keeping "current" in this area will cost you if you need to implement it, so minimize the cost by using the tools offered by .Net as they implement the newer ideas and will probably do so in the future.

Even when using toolkits (.Net or wwSoap!) whenever you narrow your protocol range or add security options you will get disappropriate amounts of connection problems and customer support calls, so KISS as long as you can <g>.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas