Just over three months ago, I wrote:

Because so much value is being driven through SOAP, you must choose your SOAP toolkit wisely. More specifically, toolkit choice will determine, for example, which [Second Generation Web Services] specifications are supported via implementations.

Ultimately, this lead me to suggest that:

Your choice of SOAP toolkit may be the most important decision you make in implementing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Web Services.

I still subscribe to this perspective.

Because it’s increasingly unlikely that developers will author SOAP and WSDL documents directly, however, your choice of Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is also increasingly important.

I’m coming to appreciate the value of a solid IDE as I dig into Web services more and more. Of late, I’ve been particularly impressed with the Eclipse Web Tool Platform (WTP).

Stay tuned.