Dear JVP

Oh dear.

You need to grasp the fact that if you provide a Web Service, you may not know exactly why the consumer requests data- no more than a supermarket knows why you purchase a sack of flour. According to you, the supermarket needs to "analyse" your need every time. No. The supermarket can analyse trends and cater for perceived needs, but if it tries to second-guess the contents of your grocery cart, insisting that you are better off with a loaf of bread than the sack of flour, you'll go down the street.

Maybe you're getting confused between writing books and the real world? In a book you can decide what "truth" you want to illustrate and invent customers conveniently fit in with that. In the real world, customers are all different and may not slot neatly into your theory.

All this about "doing it on your server" will not work. When the customer asks for data they do not tell you why. Maybe for reports. Maybe there has been a billing glitch and they want a clean set of data to load into their billing system on their own server. How can *you* process it on *your* server if you do not know? You can analyse as much as you like but the customer will still surprise you. In the real world you cannot select convenient examples and cater just for those, you have to make customers think that you will reliably deliver what they want. Accept that you will not get to control the client if you are doing a Web Service.

Honestly, until you understand Web Services a bit better you need to curb your tendency to scoff.

JR