xml-dev - RE: Transfering XML Data

[Ian Graham <igraham@ic-unix.ic.utoronto.ca>]

On Wed, 22 Nov 2000, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen wrote:

> I suggest you have a look at SOAP [1] - this is one of the things it is 
> designed to do. The SOAP encoding allows you to link to things using URIs
> so you can mix and match dynamically between what you want to have inline
> and what you want to pull from, say an HTTP server. You can also wrap
> things up in a MIME multipart if you so desire [2].
> 
> Henrik Frystyk Nielsen
> mailto:frystyk@microsoft.com
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/
> [2]
> http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/John_Barton/HTTP-A/SOAPAttachments16OCT00.htm
> 
> > > I have an application which involves transfering data to and from a
> > business
> > > partner.  We have suggested simply passing XML file using a Post
> > method over
> > > HTTP.  The actual files are small ( 2 - 5 k ).

I've been thinking about this sort of data syndication problem for the
past few months, and have sketched out some simple ideas at
http://www.java.utoronto.ca/news/.  As Henryk alludes to (at least I think
he means this), there are several separable layers to consider in an
application design:

  a) mechanism for requesting or 'pushing' objects/data (e.g.
     XML-RPC, SOAP, whatever)
  b) transport (e.g., HTTP, SMTP, IIOP) 
  c) encoding for the data being sent (e.g. MIME, XML, other)

I've mostly been thinking about (c) and an XML-mechanism for encoding
syndicated data.  In principle, such a message could contain either the
data or a URL reference that, when dereferenced, 'pulls' the data back.
But, regardless of the approach taken, I think it's important to separate
the three layers noted above, as in the long run this will make it easier
for you (or anyone else) to expand the application's scope at each layer,
without affecting the others.

There are many others looking at generic syndication issues also,
and some quite large/rich XML specifications on this topic  (e.g., OCS,
RSS). I have a list of references at:

http://www.java.utoronto.ca/news/references.html

that points to most of them.

Best --

Ian
--
Ian Graham ..........................  http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/
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