I recently tried to create a multi-tier application using a combination of SOAP and DataSnap. I used a SOAP Data Module on one side (the SOAP server) and a SoapConnection component on the other side (the SOAP client).

Unfortunately, I encountered a problem using the URL property of the SoapConnection component. It turned out to be a mistake in the on-line help of Delphi 6 (you need to pass the interface name after /soap -- unless you're using a Web App Debugger target), but now it works fine for me if I do it my way.

Since then, Kylix 2 was announced, and I've downloaded and installed the 60-day trial edition of Kylix 2 Enterprise to play with SOAP and DataSnap in Delphi 6 Enterprise as well as Kylix 2 Enterprise -- in order to create cross-platform distributed applications.

The fruits of my experiments -- SOAP/DataSnap from Windows to Linux and back -- have resulted in a set of papers. Well, it's basically one paper, produced dynamically by an "old-fashioned" WebBroker application, with a number of dynamic options that can turn it into 14 (slightly) different papers. All describing how to build a SOAP DataSnap server (using Delphi 6 Enterprise or Kylix 2 Enterprise), for a specific Web server target, with a specific database/table, and for a specific SOAP Client (again, using either Delphi 6 Enterprise or Kylix 2 Enterprise).

The place to see the overview of all 14 papers and make your individual selection is http://www.drbob42.com/soap42.htm.

Currently, I'm planning to add examples for dbExpress (using InterBase IBLocal) for both Delphi and Kylix, increasing the number of combinations even further.

Feedback and other suggestions are welcome by e-mail, of course. Thanks in advance!