Assaf Arkin wrote:
Besides the management console, we have three other ongoing projects in Ode.
One adds HTTP binding and REST support to the engine, so you can use Ode to
interact with and develop services conforming to the Web architecture. You
could build a JavaScript front-end to interact with the process, or have the
process tap into services that don't pay the WS-* tax. In certain cases,
Ah, a true fan of WS-* ;-).
The best way to start is to start small, but always keep an eye on the
target. You don't have to do JSON in the first release, just XML may be
good enough, but watch out that your data model can map nicely to either
one, because XML magically mapped to JSON has neither the benefit of being
XML nor the benefit of being JSON.
JSON or XML or plain text or whatever has absolutely no impact on whether
a design is RESTful or not. You appear to be suggesting that somehow JSON
is more RESTful than XML .. which really is somewhat ironic given the "O"
in JSON stands for "object" :).
You don't have to do any PUT or DELETE,
maybe your first service is just a lot of queries, but watch out that you're
not building something that can never accommodate for that. A good idea is
to look at REST as an interface and see if you can tear out and replace the
implementation without breaking all your clients: are the resources you're
using well thought out, or could they only be implemented by FooBar?
Sorry but this is hogwash. I don't disagree with most of your post but to
suggest that a service interface described in WSDL cannot be torn out and
replaced without breaking clients is silly. That's *exactly* what WSDL was
designed for. REST nor any other approach to architecture automatically
guarantees proper decoupling; that requires careful design.
There's a lot of fascination with XHR, which can be put to good use to
enhance a service. But there are also ways to use XHR to hide the service
from the world. Can I bookmark this page and return to it later? Can I IM
this link to someone else so they can look at it? Can I subscribe to
changes from my feed reader or pull this into my calendar? Can I have a
widget that shows this content on my desktop? The temptation to build
desktop-like applications that are closed off the Web is there, but best
ignored.
XHR is useful and necessary to make your interface more interactive.
Otherwise you have to load a brand new entire page everytime something is
done .. which most people consider 90s style Web UI design rather than
modern design. Obviously YMMV.
If you want the benefits of REST, always think how to keep clients decoupled
from servers, and which principles - not tools - will get you there.
To get the benefits of REST you have to go beyond decoupling- you have to
design a set of interlinked resources that are easily navigable by
clients. I agree that tools cannot do that.
Sanjiva.
--
Sanjiva Weerawarana, Ph.D.
Founder & Director; Lanka Software Foundation; http://www.opensource.lk/
Founder, Chairman & CEO; WSO2, Inc.; http://www.wso2.com/
Member; Apache Software Foundation; http://www.apache.org/
Visiting Lecturer; University of Moratuwa; http://www.cse.mrt.ac.lk/
