Hi,
I am currently using VBox 3.1.6 webservice APIs (PHP version) and decided to
make the jump to version 3.2 (skipping 3.1.8) as I thought it was time to 'get
caught up'.
In doing so, I got caught by a few surprises. I have only begun initial
testing ... here is what I've found thus far:
1) IMachine::getCPUProperty throws the following exception:
Method 'ns1:IMachine_getCpuProperty' not implemented: method name or namespace
not recognized). The method is described in the WSDL and so is the
CPUPropertyType. PHP API wrappers also appears to be correct. Was this method
deprecated?
2) IGuest::getStatistic (required a parm of 'GuestStatisticType') does not seem
to be a valid method any more. Appears to have been replaced with
IGuest::internalGetStatistics. From the 3.2 API docs ... seems this method is
intended to only be called internally? What does 'internal' mean here? I am
assuming the getStatistic method was deprecated?
3) IDisplay::getWidth, IDisplay::getHeight and IDisplay::getBitsPerPixel do
not seem to be valid any more. Appears to have been replaced with
IDisplay::getScreenResolution. I'm guessing here the width, height and bpp
elements were depricated?
Thinking I missed something ... I went back and looked at the 3.1.8 docs to
find where deprecated functions were listed ... and found the usual
IVirtualBox::createLegacyMachine and IVirtualBox::openMachine listed ... but
nothing else.
Some questions:
1) Where are deprecated and 'planned to be deprecated' APIs and fields/elements
listed? Is it somewhere else I should have checked?
2) What is the deprecation policy? How far in advance will APIs be advised of
deprecation?
3) Generally ... when APIs are deprecated ... they are supported for N past
versions ... what is the past-version-support and 'roll-off' duration for
deprecated APIs?
I am trying to identify a proactive way in detecting changes to APIs that my
solution uses so that I don't have to suddenly react for a new release. Is
there some other documentation that details all this and I'm just not aware of
it? This is not the first time ... a similar situation happened when the more
robust and better IMedium and IStorageController approach was added.
May I make a suggestion:
WSDL files and the vboxServiceWrappers.php file do not appear have any
'version' related information that could allow an application to be "smarter"
about what APIs are available. Can versioning be added to the WSDL files that
correlate somehow to the API version? Maybe an enumerated list of releases of
the VirtualBox application that the WSDL supports ... or even a simple comma
separated list of versions? That way, the generated vboxServiceWrappers.php
module (and other generated modules) would also include that information. It
could go a long way in allowing applications to use the version information to
make 'smart' decisions about which APIs or features are available or not.
Thanks,
Joe
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