Return-Path: <stefano@apache.org>
Mailing-List: contact cocoon-dev-help@xml.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Delivered-To: mailing list cocoon-dev@xml.apache.org
Received: (qmail 42453 invoked from network); 24 Oct 2000 10:36:57 -0000
Received: from pop.systemy.it (194.20.140.28)
  by locus.apache.org with SMTP; 24 Oct 2000 10:36:57 -0000
Received: from apache.org ([212.85.16.147]) by pop.systemy.it (8.8.8/8.8.3)
 with ESMTP id MAA04408 for <cocoon-dev@xml.apache.org>;
 Tue, 24 Oct 2000 12:36:43 +0200
Message-ID: <39F55624.38EFDC87@apache.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 11:28:04 +0200
From: Stefano Mazzocchi <stefano@apache.org>
Organization: Apache Software Foundation
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en,it
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cocoon-dev@xml.apache.org
Subject: Re: [C2]SOAP support.
References: <20001022234326.19876.qmail@web124.yahoomail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Spam-Rating: locus.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N

Davanum Srinivas wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Has anyone taken a look at this?
> 
> Thanks,
> dims
> 
> >    3) SOAP support. (??? I really don't know about this.. Flexibility
> >    Syndrome???)
> >
> >    SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is an internet draft
> >    (draft-box-http-soap-01.txt) that specifies a way to use XML-over-HTTP
> >    for remote procedure calling and data transport.
> >
> >    SOAP doesn't address a bunch of things like distributed gargabe
> >    collection or bi-directional HTTP communications. So it's not a
> >    CORBA-light thing, but a nice way to use simple existing code and
> >    knowledge to do powerful things.
> >
> >    a SOAP request looks like this:
> >
> >       POST /StockQuote HTTP/1.1
> >       Host: www.stockquoteserver.com
> >       Content-Type: text/xml
> >       Content-Length: nnnn
> >       SOAPMethodName: Some-Namespace-URI#GetLastTradePrice
> >
> >       <SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="urn:schemas-xmlsoap-org:soap.v1">
> >         <SOAP:Body>
> >           <m:GetLastTradePrice xmlns:m="Some-Namespace-URI">
> >             <symbol>DIS</symbol>
> >           </m:GetLastTradePrice>
> >         </SOAP:Body>
> >       </SOAP:Envelope>
> >
> >    and the response is something like this:
> >
> >       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
> >       Content-Type: text/xml
> >       Content-Length: nnnn
> >
> >       <SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="urn:schemas-xmlsoap-org:soap.v1">
> >         <SOAP:Body>
> >           <m:GetLastTradePriceResponse xmlns:m="Some-Namespace-URI">
> >              <return>34.5</return>
> >           </m:GetLastTradePriceResponse>
> >         </SOAP:Body>
> >       </SOAP:Envelope>
> >
> >    Now, look carefully. Cocoon is already able to handle this:
> >    ProducerFromRequest!!!
> >
> >    Ok, a better approach would be to write a producer that reacts on the
> >    "SOAPMethodName:" header and connects to the right object and does all
> >    that introspection and reflection things and then generates the response
> >    output directly....
> >
> >    or we can use simple producers and do the evaluation with filters...
> >    anyway the architecture is able to stand this with no problems. :)
> >
> >    Now the question: should Cocoon care about this? Normally SOAP is
> >    considered a way for simple clients to interact with object
> >    repositories... a simpler way to use ODMG + remote logic. Much simpler,
> >    in any case.
> >
> >    We could picture something like this:
> >
> >     browser <-> HTMLoverHTTP <-> cocoon <-> SOAPoverHTTP <-> cocoon <->
> >    object
> >
> >    but maybe using cocoon for the last step is a little bit too much... in
> >    fact, creating a SOAP server is a piece of cake once you have
> >    http-handling classes (tomcat) and an xml parser (xerces).
> >
> >    We'll see. anyway, we won't be surprised when something like this gets
> >    asked. :)

Hmmmm, this would create a huge overlap between Cocoon and the Apache
SOAP project, don't you think?

Since we already have a java SOAP implementation around, do you see any
reason to duplicate the effort?

I'm not sarcastic, I'm really curious. Did you have anything specific in
mind.

Stefano.