Re: Re: Linux & xAP

[Stuart Booth]

On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 16:34:03 +0100, Johan Helsingius <<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=4qfF2MyD-9Q_mhaQWBl2LXQ5kTzMe9h6bG9VCSc55AqKHkuHyxwYCT5CN1AIXrDr7ayw0WWY0nbp">yahoo@j...</a>>
wrote:

>OK... First a bona fide question - is there a standardised way
>(such as an XML application) for the schemas? I assume
>pretty much any complex xAP application will have to work
>with a bunch of schemas, and it would be nice if they were
>all available in some standardised, parseable format.

That's something that has been talked about but doesn't (yet) exist in
any public form.

Kevin has also written a document describing a system of basic status
and control (which we often refer to as "BSC") as a low level xAP
interface for applications. A meta-schema (?) is fancied by others I
think.

>Then just more of a "wish list" thing - how about a simple,
>C-language-without-threads-and-other-fancy-stuff library
>for just parsing and converting xAP wire format messages?

As far as I know, that would probably best come out of Patrick's Linux
efforts? I'm not sure as I concentrate on my own framework, which is
written in C# for Microsoft's .NET Framework.

Just FYI, xAPFramework.NET is actually split up as you describe.

There's a component that handles message building, reading, parsing
and writing. And there is a separate, and hence optional, component
that handles the transport aspects.

There are a growing number of additional parts that add various
utility type facilities (e.g. supporting plugin business logic modules
amongst other features), user interface (e.g. common configuration
dialogs and controls), and native support for specific xAP schema,
etc.

>Is there some application/code that could be considered
>the "reference" implementation to test against?

Ummm, I'm going to stand-up and take half of that one I think. My own
xAPFramework.NET library is (by design) very strict in its handling of
xAP messages. Sometimes this can be annoying I guess, but I prefer the
benefits.

What it does mean is that if you used something like xAP Viewer
(running on a Windows/.NET PC) you could see how it handles the xAP
messages. And it will moan at you if you start sending things that
aren't correctly formed. Well, maybe not so much 'moan', but it will
highlight problems quite nicely in the latest version, as well as
attempt to describe what the actual problem it encountered is.

I'm not sure how rigid other implementations of xAP are in comparison,
so maybe somebody else can nudge up and add something more?

I think that's what you're asking about? I wouldn't necessarily call
its code 'reference' though. It's just my own implementation for my
own satisfaction.

S
--
Stuart Booth <<a
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