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<!DOCTYPE preface PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
                 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
<preface id="preface">
	<title>Preface</title>
	<para>
        In the current age of Service Oriented Architectures, more and more people are using Web Services to
        connect previously unconnected systems. Initially, Web services were considered to be just another way to do
        a Remote Procedure Call (RPC). Over time however, people found out that there is a big difference
        between RPCs and Web services. Especially when interoperability with other platforms is important, it is often
        better to send encapsulated XML documents, containing all the data necessary to process the request.
        Conceptually, XML-based Web services are better off being compared to message queues rather than remoting
        solutions.
        Overall, XML should be considered the platform-neutral representation of data, the 
        <foreignphrase>interlingua</foreignphrase> of SOA. When developing or using Web services, the focus should be 
        on this XML, and not on Java.
    </para>
    <para>
        Spring Web Services focusses on creating these document-driven Web services.
        Spring Web Services facilitates contract-first SOAP service development, allowing for the creation of
        flexible web services using one of the many ways to manipulate XML payloads. 
        Spring-WS provides a powerful <link linkend="server">message dispatching framework</link>, various <link
        linkend="oxm">XML marshalling</link> techniques that can be used outside a Web service environment, a <link
        linkend="security">WS-Security</link> solution that integrates with your existing application security
        solution, and a <link linkend="client">Client-side API</link> that follows the familiar Spring template pattern.
    </para>
	<para>
        This document provides a reference guide to Spring-WS's features. Since this document is still a
        work-in-progress, if you have any requests or comments, please post them on the support forums at <ulink
        url="http://forum.springframework.org/forumdisplay.php?f=39"/>.
    </para>
</preface>