Re: PostgreSQL and SOAP, version 7.4/8.0

Jason M. Felice wrote:

>First, a SOAP query should be posted in SOAP message format, not using the
>query string as you do. Second, I like the idea of calling external SOAP
>services, but consider creating a language 'soap' you could do with a CREATE
>FUNCTION type thing. e.g.
>
>CREATE FUNCTION "foo" (TEXT) RETURNS INTEGER AS
> 'http://somewhere.com/path/to/.wsdl', 'foo'
> LANGUAGE 'soap';
>
>(hmm, it is unclear if this is what you are suggesting or not...)
>
>Second, I hate SOAP because it is too bloated (have you read the spec(s)?).
>If you can support xmlrpc instead, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches.
>If you got SOAP working, though, I'd use it. It's more an implementation
>thing.
>

Here's the thing, yes I know there are a "lot" of alternatives to SOAP,
all with varying levels of "being better than SOAP." It still stands
that a SOAP interface would be useful for people.

>
>
>On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 09:01:08AM -0500, mlw wrote:
>
>
>>I have been working on moving some of my software to a more SOAP
>>compatible interface. As I was doing it, it occured to me that a generic
>>function could be written, in PostgreSQL's new function manager that
>>allows multiple columns to be returned, that is a generic SOAP interface.
>>
>>All one would need do is define what is expected from the SOAP call in
>>the "CREATE FUNCTION" statement. Then the generic SOAP function could
>>then read what is expected and return the XML/SOAP data as a set of
>>results as if it were a subquery.
>>
>>What is needed is an efficient way to find the data types and names from
>>the functions definition. Does anyone know how to do that?
>>
>>A small program could also parse a WSDL file and write a "CREATE
>>FUNCTION" script for the XML as well.
>>
>>On the flip side, I am also working on a PostgreSQL SOAP interface,
>>where one does this:
>>
>>http://somehost/postgresql?query="select * from table"
>>
>>And a SOAP compatible resultset is returned.
>>
>>On a more advanced horizon, one should be able to do this:
>>
>>select * from localtable,
>>mysoap('http://remotehost/postgresql?query=select * from foo') as soap
>>where soap.field = localtable.field;
>>
>>If we can do that, PostgreSQL could fit into almost ANY service
>>environment. What do you guys think? Anyone want to help out?
>>
>>
>>
>
>I have no time to volunteer for projects, but what the hell...! It's too
>cool. I can't spend much time on it but bounce things off me and I'll
>do whatever hacking I can squeeze in. What soap implementation would you
>use for the PostgreSQL plugin? libsoap, last I checked, is a wee bit
>out of date. And not documented.
>

I was thinking of using SOAP over HTTP as the protocol, and a minimalist
version at best. If the people want "more" let them add it.

I have an HTTP service class in my open source library. It would br
trivial to accept a SQL query formatted as a GET request, and then
execute the query and, using libpq, format the result as XML. It should
be simple enough to do.

>
>-Jason
>
>
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