My dilemma is, basically, how to share an enumeration between two applications.
The users upload documents through a front-end application that is on the web. This application calls a web service of the back-end application and passes the document to it. The back-end app saves the document and inserts a row in the Document table.
The document type (7 possible document types: Invoice, Contract etc.) is passed as a parameter to the web service's UploadDocument method. The question is, what should the type (and possible values) of this parameter be?
Since you need to hardcode these values in both applications, I think it is O.K. to use a descriptive string (Invoice, Contract, WorkOrder, SignedWorkOrder).
Is it maybe a better approach to create a DocumentTypes enumeration in the first application, and to reproduce it also in the second application, and then pass the corresponding integer value to the web service between them?
I can only speak about .net, but if you have an ASP.net Webservice, you should be able to add an enumeration directly to it.
When you then use the "Add Web Reference" in your Client Application, the resulting Class should include that enum
But this is from the top of my head, i'm pretty sure i've done it in the past, but I can't say for sure.