Re: Does xPL support Binary Data types?

["John B" <home-automation@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Gerry,

> Hopefully a quick question -- does xPL support binary encoding of
values in
> name/value pairs?  In xAP, you could include a hex equivilent of a
binary
> value and if the value in a name/value pair had an approriate lead-in
> marker, the rest of the value was treated as hex pairs describing the
binary
> content.

The protocol spec does not specify any means of transmitting binary data.
It is up to the individual schema definition to define, if required, how
any binary data should be sent.
E.g. the proposed infra-red schema (ir.basic) needs to transmit raw
infra-red bytes, and the schema specification mentions using either hex or
BASE64 encoding.
Hex encoding is the same approach as that used by xAP, whereas BASE64
provides a more efficient means of packing the binary data into the message
element.

The general guidelines are to avoid using binary data whenever possible,
but if you do need to use it, you should include suitable encoding
mechanisms as part of your schema definition.

> I suppose while I'm working on dispelling xAP stuff, does xPL require
only
> one message body per message?  In xAP, you head a header, then
potentially
> unlimited number of schema class/type/body blocks.  From all the docs
I've
> seen so far, I've never seen a multi-block xPL message, but I haven't
found
> anything defining this one way or the other.

There is only one message body in xPL.

Regards,

John