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WSDL, XML, SOAP, etc
Anyone working with this? Using SOAP::Lite, or Net::Amazon, or one of the interfaces?

Many ecommerce and affiliate sites are making feeds available, and the trick is to import them, without violating TOS or causing server overloads. I've been trying to make an interface class for Links, specifically for Amazon via Net::Amazon, but generalize it to almost any other XML type feed.

Pooling efforts, sharing problems, etc would be helpful.

What I want to end up with is a Link object, that can take the returned XML object, and map the fields into the appropriate fields. On an advanced level, it could pick out missing fields, and flag them for the Admin to evaluate (as if in the XML object changes).

Set up of the plugin would require mapping database fields to the response object, and there would be one mapping per plugin, affiliate site, or xmle feed (rather than just "one" mapping).

There are hacks that can be done, on a case by case basis, but what is needed is a a new module, Plugins::XML or Plugins::WSDL (or whatever it ends up as), that other plugins or utilities can call.

It seems putting them in the Plugins directory would be more portable, in general, and it would override any system similar files because the script libs come ahead of the Perl libs (I'm pretty sure).

This is primarily for INPUT -- product feeds, books, dvds, etc (where as the WS4LSQL is primarily for output, it seems)


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Re: [pugdog] WSDL, XML, SOAP, etc In reply to
WS4LSQL is also for input!
This feature has not been thoroughly tested though, but has been seen working Cool It does not quite meet your requirements, I think, but can be a good base for further work.

I would love to see a further XMLification of LSQL. Be it via a module, globals, or whatever. But there seems to be quite some work in this undertaking, since the module either must be very "intelligent", or parts of the basic LSQL architecture must be updated. For example, character encoding seems to me to be an eternal issue with LSQL ... XML is very strict on such stuff.
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Re: [gotze] WSDL, XML, SOAP, etc In reply to
Yes. Character encoding/international sets are a real issue all around.

There are some modules that can help, but for the most part, it seems, separate scripts are needed for different character sets. The input modules are large becuse of that, or are designed to read ONE sort of input, that they know the character set for.

Obviously, (or maybe not), the first versions of all this are going to be western, and not try to deal with content as in the World category of DMOZ. Once a working framework is set up, and works well with english, then soneone who has the inclination can take it further.

Right now, I'm trying to get a handle on the various modules, and pick which is "best" for developing upon, and creating new objects for Links. They have tried to "hide" the guts of the work so well, trying to decipher what is going on is not easy.

I will look at WS4LSQL more closely.

Do you have some demo sites? Or examples of what your module can and cannot do at this point?

I'm not sure what the Links internals have to do with anything, since the XML has to really deal with the Links tables themselves, and that is mostly dealing with the lower level calls. We're not really dealing with input/output, but "data" objects.

We are taking a data object out of links, and sending it down the line, or we are bringing a data object into links, and displaying it (or storing it).

For instance, the link_loop variable can be turned into an XML object, since it's an array of hashes, and an XML request for links would be expecting that. Conversely, the XML can be turned into an array of hashes, and Links is expecting that.

More later.


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

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Please leave a PM here.