Opening Lines of Communication

Posted 1 May 2002 at 12:21 UTC by rubys Share This

Take a simple query. Direct it at a resource identified via a URL. Pass it a few query parameters. As an architect, I can grok this concept. Now there may be a number of isomorphic, 1-to-1 and onto ways of representing these parameters - for example, concatenating the parameters on the resource identifier, or encoding the parameters separate from the resource. But be careful, if you chose one of to separate the parameters, you will be labeled a "client-server" person who "can't bear to represent their information separately from their plans for processing it."

At least, that's the impression I get reading Simon's latest diary entry.

Let's seek some common ground. It may very well be true that some or even most SOAP as practiced today is not RESTful. But it would be a falacious to deduce from this statement that all SOAP usage is not RESTful.

Most of all, lets open the lines of communication


Uh, Sam?, posted 1 May 2002 at 13:48 UTC by simonstl » (Master)

I don't believe I labeled anyone the way you describe. I was telling a story about the Web with a good dose of (I think much needed) historical perspective.

You might want to take a look at the Web Services Discussion Worth Watching Story that's four down from this one to explore communication so far - it's been pretty interesting.

I strongly doubt that responding to my diary this way is a wise method of seeking common ground.

take a free guess - how to fix any URL disturbance, posted 1 May 2002 at 16:21 UTC by badvogato » (Master)

One evil minded person on my site create a URL with this string "badvogato.org/proj/%07/". Apparently, this special character "%07" generates an oscillated disturbance on a function unknown to the troubleshooting engineer.

Take a free guess: how to fix the bug? And what is this bug?

Badvogato disturbance., posted 2 May 2002 at 08:44 UTC by pom » (Master)

If the disturbance you are talking about is the blinking of the page, it has nothing to do with %07 project, but is related to "<blink>Prophet" project. When you go to the project page, only the title blinks, because the <blink> is "reset" </h2>. In your list of projects, the <blink> isn't closed...

Solution: HTTP encode the projects name special charcaters like < and >

Encoding parameters, posted 2 May 2002 at 08:51 UTC by pom » (Master)

I am currently using Pliant HTTP server and dynamic pages. Using it, it is possible to pass parameters in a fully non visible way by mean of "virtual tree": for instance, URL http://myhost/mysample/prime/by5cols/100.html will execute the code in the page /mysample/prime/virtual_tree.page with a virtual path "/by5cols/100.html". Once parsed, my page actually prints the primes up to 100 (last parameter) in a table with 5 columns (first parameter).

Similarly, file browser, forum browser, data browser (database access), type browser (scanning of compiler type definition) are dynamic and use a similar scheme for URL encoding, which gives no hint on the fact pages are dynamic and get parameters from the end of their URL.

/proj/%07/ turns a dynamic page into a static one, posted 2 May 2002 at 14:21 UTC by badvogato » (Master)

No, pom. blinking is my site's trademark. What bothers me is /proj/%07/ turned a dynamic page recentproj.html into a static one. It seems /proj/%07/ brakes the link in a function which re-writes "http://badvogato.org/recentproj.html" from "http://badvogato.org/proj/". Due to that disturbance, the dynamic property of Evil Plans on the frontpage no longer functions. You can see that quite clear. After Scientology plan, all new evil plans never get on the frontpage.

I believe it is Darwinism at work. By natural selection of evilminds, Badvo is evolving into mold of his creator's image . On this National Day of Prayer, let's pray all henchman on my site can continue boggling their evil plans without the curse of frontpage flames while TRUE noble minds like you and I can tend our own business seriously.

also check out the spectacular oscillation on evil plans, posted 2 May 2002 at 16:48 UTC by sye » (Journeyer)

"http://badvogato.org/proj/This%20Is%20a%20Theory" 1877 echoing replies washed away the earlier fun part of those replies
Click at your own risk

Re: Encoding parameters, posted 6 May 2002 at 02:02 UTC by tk » (Observer)

I guess I've just formed some sort of opinion in this debate after seeing pom's reply. :-(

I feel that thinking in terms of "queries" and "parameters" is somewhat backwards. A client shouldn't need to know, for example, whether the projects page of this fair site comes from a static file, a database query, or some other process. In short, everything should be treated as a resource.

(Seen in this light, it'll seem that the CGI query string format is also a bit of a hack...)

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