Web Services vs Web Portals (WSRP)

[Dan Bass]

Hey guys.


[Scenario]
In creating a Asp.Net website, the client has asked that I also expose some
functionality by means of a Web Service.

Having done this, I've realised in order to perform one task, multiple id's
are required as parameters. These id's are mapped in a database on the
server, so to perform a this task, the client would be required to call a
dozen or so "GetxxxList()" type functions to return the lists. They would
then need to find the id they need by searching the name/value pairs, and
pass in each parameter.


[Declaration]
The webservice function looks like this:

public string Create (
int creatorUserId,
string taskTitle,
string description,
int assignToUserId,
int assignToGroupId,
int typeId,
int categoryId,
int serviceId,
int processId,
int systemNameId,
int projectId,
int statusId,
int priorityId,
DateTime startDate,
DateTime endDate,
int timeZoneId,
int durationHrs )

each parameter ending in Id would need to have a call done on its adjacent
GetxxxList function to get the id required...


[Question]
What would be the best way to expose this?
Currently as a web service, would this be deamed acceptable, presumably as
long as the required knowledge is given to the client developer?
There's been talk of using Web Portals, which in my brief investigation, I
presume would allow me to provide populated list boxes with the Id
name/value pairs required for the Create function. Would this be feasible?

Thanks for your time.

Daniel