All the way to SOAP
Apparently, the Monastic one (a.k.a., my personal albatross) seems some value in a data binding package, and he correctly points out that validation may not be necessary part of the equation. I'll take what I can get.
Meanwhile he states surprise, not once but twice, that I would be willing to go all the way to web services and all the way to SOAP in order to achieve this.
So, I felt it instructive to explore exactly how far that is. This resulted in a new essay, entitled, Soap By Example. Enjoy.