SOAP/Cocoon example using Google. The trailing slash in step 8 is important!

I've downloaded and installed Cocoon. The installation download says you don't need any extra files, but you will need a Java VM and a servlet container like Tomcat.

Don't rely on the installed installation guide, it doesn't guide you through the version maze with your VM and Tomcat installations. Use the online guide.

It's quite powerful, which means lots of new concepts. I wondered how you actually configured it, until I worked out that you edit xml files, there is no GUI.

I still don't really get what .NET is about, being out of development for a while, but Jon Udell has a review.

Yes, it really is alphabet soup. But they say it's not really that bad.

So what do I know so far? Webservices are a way of getting things to talk to each other, over the web. It covers a whole load of bits and pieces like SOAP and WDSL and other acronyms. It's all developing pretty fast and it's hard to get an overview of which bits work with which bits.

I'm looking into Cocoon which is a "web development framework", which seems good at getting data to flow, for example from a database through to a web page.

If you want some things to investigate read this article and come back when you understand it all. I don't.