[jdev] SOAP over XMPP, does my server need anything special?

[Jonathan Dickinson]

Hi Devraj,

I think SOAP is what you should look at, well, because everyone is doing 
it: and it's more versatile. RPC has been around forever, but SOAP still 
rules the roost.

Remember, you can also try to use other XEPs in clever ways. For 
instance, you could use a message a la (trying to negotiate a meeting):

<message to="romeo at jabber.org" from="juliet at jabber.org">
Hi Juliet, Would you like to have a
<span class="vevent" id="hcalendar--A-Meeting-In-The-Garden">
   <a class="url" href="http://www.thegarden.lit">
     <span class="summary">Meeting In The Garden</span> on
     <abbr class="dtstart" title="20070924T1600">September 24th 
8pm</abbr> to
     <abbr class="dtend" title="20070925T1600">12pm</abbr>
     in
     <span class="location">The Garden</span>?
   </a>
</span>
</message>

As you can see I am using Microformats <http://microformats.org> there, 
which you could also try using: the other user will be able to take 
action if they don't have your client. Your client would just have to 
pick that up and take appropriate action (your could track it using the 
id tag).

<message to="juliet at jabber.org" from="romeo at jabber.org">
Hi Romeo, that doesn't work for me, how about we have a
<span class="vevent" id="hcalendar--A-Meeting-In-The-Garden">
   <a class="url" href="http://www.thegarden.lit">
     <span class="summary">Meeting In The Garden</span> on
     <abbr class="dtstart" title="20070924T1600">September 24th 
8pm</abbr> to
     <abbr class="dtend" title="20070925T1600">8pm</abbr>
     in
     <span class="location">The Garden</span>?
   </a>
</span>
</message>

Romeo agrees (all the fields are identical):

<message to="romeo at jabber.org" from="juliet at jabber.org">
Hi Juliet,
<span class="vevent" id="hcalendar--A-Meeting-In-The-Garden">
   <a class="url" href="http://www.thegarden.lit">
     <span class="summary">Meeting In The Garden</span> on
     <abbr class="dtstart" title="20070924T1600">September 24th 
8pm</abbr> to
     <abbr class="dtend" title="20070925T1600">8pm</abbr>
     in
     <span class="location">The Garden</span>?
   </a>
</span>
works for me.
</message>

I'm sure you get the idea.

Good luck!

Jonathan

Devraj Mukherjee wrote:
> Hi Jonathan,
> 
> Thanks for posting your response. I wish to use Jabber as a transport
> for a custom client (infact a software we are building for a client)
> to query data from another client. So like an RPC but we wish to use
> XMPP to transport the request.
> 
> Is SOAP over XMPP what I should look at, or XML/RPC over XMPP?
> 
> Thanks for your feedback.
> 
> On 8/22/07, Jonathan Dickinson <chayce.za at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If you want your server to expose a SOAP endpoint you will need a
>> plugin, otherwise you could always have a custom Jabber client and have
>> JIDs like creditcards at bank.com and accounts at bank.com.
>>
>> It makes more sense to make the server JID (e.g. bank.com) the SOAP
>> endpoint, but that isn't always possible: as it seems to be in your case.
>>
>> Furthermore, I would recommend you alter your SOAP framework somehow,
>> because SOAP is stateless where XMPP is stateful, you can leverage this
>> to your advantage (in my honest opinion, XMPP is better suited to Remote
>> API than HTTP). E.g. most SOAP endpoints require a login of some form,
>> you can have the user log in once using a Login method instead of
>> sending credentials/tokens each time another method is called.
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> Devraj Mukherjee wrote:
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I am a new to Jabber development, and am trying to carry SOAP messages
>>> over XMPP. I noticed the SOAP extension to XMPP on the XMPP web site.
>>>
>>> My questions is do Jabber servers require additional
>>> plugins/implementations to carry SOAP messages across or can any
>>> standard Jabber server be able to carry the message?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
> 
>