I'll weigh in.
I'd prefer SOAP. I know you're gung-ho on XML-RPC, and I can understand that its simplicity would make it useful in a lot of ways, but for the most part, the XML-RPC libraries I've seen for Java, C++, and PHP have all been a bit of a mess (Marquee/Redstone isn't TOO bad, but it's still rather poorly documented overall). SOAP, while being more complex, is a bit more powerful as well, allowing me to define the data types I'm using and accepting, and how to use them, as well as allowing a great deal more flexibility when it comes to specifying the characters sets I'm looking for and the like.
On the flip side, SOAP is still a growing standard. Some people will be turned off by the fact that it is almost certain to change as time goes on, but for any of us who got in on the ground floor of the Java spec, or PHP, or half a dozen other languages out there that change their APIs on a semi-regular basis, a spec or protocol that changes is hardly daunting.
We've used SOAP for a lot of things to connect to various services, and most of the telco services we interconnect with use SOAP and not XML-RPC. That would mean we'd end up having to do things two ways for all our apps and server side code, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.
It reall boils down to why do you like XML-RPC and what do you see its strengths are in terms of SER? If there's good reason to use one over another, even given the limitations, then I don't see a problem with it. As long as it's all well-documented with example code and such, it should be just fine.
Again, it boils down to the fact that good documentation goes a long way toward making even the most intractable projects into workable solutions.
N.
On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:05:24 +0200, Jiri Kuthan wrote
I'm digging through old archives and I am just wondering how people feel about 18 month later about the discussion about SOAP, XMl-RPC, etc. Any feedback would be appreciated -- what you think about it now and more importantly what's your experience if any. All in all, many are asking for a roadmap and input to that is most welcome.
-jiri
I have an opinion on this topic too but didn't want to begin egoistically with mine :-)
At 12:48 25/01/2005, David R. Kompel wrote:
Greger and everyone else that is interested,
Please consider before ruling out SOAP, that SOAP has more off the shelf libraries to support it then XMLRPC. Please consider the folks that use Microsoft platforms for their back end processing and databases, and keep in mind the following:
Yukon is just around the corner. It has SOAP services built in, as well as the ability to call SOAP services directly from T-SQL.
Also we implement a carrier grade platform using SER, which is in use by a number of VoIP providers here, with the following extensions:
- An extra module which allows for RADIUS URI translation, extended AVP
lookup, via extra string parameter which lets you identify what AVP query you wish to do, and an extra flag in the registration database "FOREIGN" registration, to identify a contact which has been replicated from another SER server.
- A service which speaks SOAP to he outside world, (it's own http
server on non-standard port) to allow an external interface to the SER FIFO interface. It use is for external Voicemail MWI Notifies, and to send refresh, reboot and report notify messages to SIP devices.
- A generic provisioning server for almost any SIP device, which can be
provisioned via TFTP, HTTP, or HTTPS. This server dynamically builds configuration files in memory on the fly for any device based on RE pattern matching of the filename, mapped to SQL statement, which returns device parameters.
With just these above three things, we can implement a full carrier grade system, with full automated device provisioning, all CLASS 5 features, such as unlimited level hunting, recursive call forwarding (even when each device in the forwarding has a different dial plan) and just about anything else you can think of. To accomplish this, we depend on SOAP as a method of component communication because we consider any platform, including Microsoft and the ".NET framework" as things we need to interact with.
If your goal is to provide a framework for integrating with other platforms, SOAP bring a lot more flexibility to the game, and make it more compatible with more platforms.
Remember, this is just an opinion, however it needed to be expressed, just so you know what other folks are doing with SER.
--Dave
-----Original Message----- From: serusers-bounces@iptel.org [mailto:serusers-bounces@iptel.org] On Behalf Of Greger V. Teigre Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 11:29 PM To: Juha Heinanen Cc: serusers@iptel.org Subject: Re: [Serusers] Carrier-grade framework for SER
Juha, Yes, I completely agree with you. However, I don't need to read the spec and far from understand it before I use it... ;-) So I did start to look at
SOAP and have very good experiences, both in terms of usability and scalability. But, I don't have strong opinions, if the people who are going to use the interface are all against SOAP, XMLRPC is the right choice.
The xmlrpc-provisioning work you have done, can it be coordinated with Andreas' effort? g-)
Juha Heinanen wrote:
Greger V. Teigre writes:
As I indicated in an earlier email, I would be interested in taking part in a joint effort to further develop ser's high-availability and scalability (HAS). I would probably have to do some development anyway, and I would prefer to see such support in the public domain. In Nov/Dec I called for responses on a SOAP-based provisioning interface, but heard nothing, so here is an overlap of interests.
greger,
we have done some work on xmlprc based provisioning and it looks promising. xmlrpc spec is three pages long and even i can understand it. soap spec, on the other hand, is far too thick and goes way above my head.
-- juha
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-- Jiri Kuthan http://iptel.org/~jiri/
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