[Zope-dev] SOAP support: request for comments

[Toby Dickenson]

On 02 Aug 2001 23:56:08 -0600, Bill Anderson <bill@immosys.com> wrote:

>My concerns of the 'magic', would be dependant n whether or not your
>stance includes a limit on SOAP support. i agree that Web Servies !=3D
>SOAP, but IMO, if your proposal means that SOAP support in Zope is only
>available in a Web Services ... 'namespace', then we will be sorely
>lacking in someting quite useful.
>
>For example, I have a GUI for user management that uses XML-RPC right
>now. I would MUCH prefer to use SOAP for it. It really is not a
>webservice, and it would be a mistake to make it one, just to get to it
>with SOAP.

I have had strong concerns that mirror what you describe here, and
have been getting nervous every time Brian has said 'SOAP support
shouldnt be like xml-rpm'. (just a cunning plan to make sure I read
this Proposal, I guess)


However,
http://dev.zope.org/Wikis/DevSite/Proposals/WebServicesForZope has me
completely satisfied that my SOAP-as-rpc needs will be satified too.

Quoting from that article:

>it will be relatively easy for people to build an alternative or
>extended Zope layer for special needs

In principal an alternative layer could implement the sample
ZPublisher rules, as used by todays xml-rpc. (However, Im not sure it
would be right to do *exactly* that; the has-it-got-a-docstring rule
is barely adequate for its original purpose. I would be happy to
require some extra typing, and less magic.)

Such a layer fits nicely on top of Brians 'High-level layer' as I
understand the architecture.

>I would like to see Zope be an excellent development environment/server
>for SOAP Services.

Indeed.

Toby Dickenson
tdickenson@geminidataloggers.com