Thanks Craig,

I ordered the second two books you linked on WCF and also an older book Professional ASP .Net Web Services (a Wrox book) as the reviews were good.

Tim

>You want to look at something called Web Services Enhancements (WSE), which are basically Microsoft's support of the WS* specs. I don't have a specific book that I can recommend. I can only go by Amazon searches.
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Service-Oriented-Architecture-2005-Second/dp/159059701X/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215446177&sr=8-3
>
>Another option, is to go with WCF. You'll still need to go with WS* stuff, but is more current. I can recommend two books here.
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Learning-WCF-Hands-Michele-Bustamante/dp/0596101627/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215446431&sr=8-1
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Programming-WCF-Services-Juval-Lowy/dp/0596526997/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215446431&sr=8-2
>
>Another with good reviews, but I haven't read it is http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Windows-Communication-Foundation-WCF/dp/0321440064/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215446431&sr=8-3
>
>>I have created Web Services, but they so far have been simple returning true or false or simple strings. I need to create more complex return types from database results. I also need to create web methods that accept data for inserting into the SQL database on the web server. Someone mentioned using XML but I am not sure I even know how to define that as a type.
>>
>>I also need to secure the web service methods. In addition I have several websites that use security based on Mere Mortals. I have had trouble getting ASP security to secure folders in the web.config and still find a way to get access to the appopriate users. Therefore my knowledge in this area seems lacking.
>>
>>The current application I need to be working on is two parts: A windows application that will collect data and send it to the web service in order to be inserted into a SQL database. Each collection of sent data will represent a single row of data.
>>The web service is part of a web application in which the web service primary job is to receive this data and insert it. I know how to do the inserting, but not really how to best receive this data. The rest of the web site will display based on the SQL server and is not a problem for me as it is pretty straight forward and I have done this many times.
>>
>>I think this boils down to a single process with a method on the windows application that sends data and a web service that receives it. I just don't have enough experience in the web service arena to know how to do this properly. I need to learn.
>>Thank You
>>Tim