XIR: Use XML To Call COM Components over the Internet, cont.

XIR System Benefits

Now that you understand the system's capabilities and how it functions, it should be easier to understand how it delivers its benefits. First, you are now free to directly call your COM components over the Internet without fear of firewalls and proxies. Second, you are also free of having to install type libraries or register server components on the client. This is definitely better for Internet clients. Third, XIR allows you to batch up service calls to the server, which reduces the number of network roundtrips. This is more powerful than simply consolidating server component methods into one method because you can design your server interfaces properly (i.e. for extensibility and reuse) then aggregate multiple method calls into one batch request. Finally, using the asynchronous feature of XMLHTTP you get asynchronous COM calls for free and with no special technology requirements- i.e. you do not have to use a language where you can spawn a worker thread to make the call.

Clearly, you get a lot of value from this system. But should you implement XIR or can you use some ready-made alternative. It depends.