RPC-style Web services aim to expose a business object as a Web service
interface described by WSDL (Web Services Description Language). On the other
hand, document-based Web services are based on the exchange of XML documents
between two parties. The Web service receiving the document is responsible
for performing actions based on the content of the XML document. The benefits
of using a document-style Web service are:
They facilitate exchange of self-describing documents that have a business
context (ebXML) instead of exchange of data structures that reflect
application interfaces. Document-based Web services support synchronous and
asynchronous interactions. Since changing a few fields in a document doesn't
break the contract between the two parties as changing the application
interface would, document-based Web services provide better insulation from
changes to t... (more)