This paper presents a general xml-based distributed software architecture in the aim of accessing and sharing resources in an opened client/server environment. The paper is organized as follows : First, we introduce the idea of a "General Distributed Software Architecture". Second, we describe the general framework in which this architecture is used. Third, we describe the process of information exchange and we introduce some technical issues involved in the implementation of the proposed architecture. Finally, we present some projects which are currently using, or which should use, the proposed architecture.