Apologies if this is not the correct forum for this question...



I am evaluating app frameworks for our dev team and SF is one of the current front runners. However, try as I might, I can't see any discussion anywhere about creating web services using SF - it all seems very UI app focussed.



A large part of our business is providing web services to our clients for data exchange and for purchasing our products; these web services rely on passing XML documents containing the required data. It would not be practical to expose a web service serving up serialised SF business objects - this would be meaningless to the consumers of our services.



Does the SF toolset provide the ability to easily create XML web services built on the SF business layer in the same way that it facilitates the creation of Win/WebForms apps, or would such web services need to be hand coded?



Thanks.