[OAI-implementers] SOAP-PMH

Tue Dec 7 13:09:29 EST 2004

It's not a question of SOAP vs. OAI, it's a question of SOAP vs. REST.
OAI could, in theory, operate using either transport mechanism.
Currently, the OAI protocol is based on the REST model, but some people
prefer the SOAP model (although I can't imagine why. ;-))

In general, REST refers to the use of HTTP URL requests that produce
some form of HTTP response. This approach is so familiar to us with web
browsing that we don't even realize it is a convention for providing
lightweight web service like OAI and RSS.

SOAP, OTOH, generally requires intelligent clients (compared to web
browsers) that can encode requests in SOAP wrappers and decode the SOAP
responses.

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: oai-implementers-bounces at openarchives.org
[mailto:oai-implementers-
> bounces at openarchives.org] On Behalf Of Roy Tennant
> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 12:13 PM
> To: oai-implementers at openarchives.org
> Subject: Re: [OAI-implementers] SOAP-PMH
> 
> For someone who is clearly too dense to get it (and not afraid to
admit
> it), and for perhaps others who are in the same boat, could someone
> please describe the practical benefits of SOAP vs. OAI? That is,
> specifically what is enabled by SOAP that you cannot already
accomplish
> using OAI? I've scanned the referenced paper for evidence and am still
> wondering. Thanks,
> Roy Tennant
> 
> On Dec 7, 2004, at 8:43 AM, Hussein Suleman wrote:
> 
> > hi Jeff, Tim, et al
> >
> > i agree - consensus is the issue here. there are certainly many
> > different ways to encode OAI-ish data into SOAP envelopes. it
shouldnt
> > be too difficult to set up a process to decide on a single
> > interpretation, but that should be within the auspices of the OAI
(if
> > it still exists) and, more importantly, i think we should put effort
> > into it only if people think there is real benefit in doing it right
> > now!
> >
> > as a counter-argument, the dust on SOAP1.2 has yet to settle and
WSDL
> > is not yet a W3C recommendation ... alternatively we can adopt the
WSI
> > interpretation of Web Services, which does not rely on W3C
> > standardisation but builds on the technical notes. all very
political
> > and complicated stuff indeed :)
> >
> > in any event, if the technical stuff isnt a big deal then the
> > pertinent question is: how do users (people who code their own data
> > providers and harvesters) feel? is there a need to look at
SOAPifying
> > OAI-PMH at this point in time?
> >
> > ttfn,
> > ----hussein
> >
> > ps. yes, Tim, you can easily create a layered SOAP/OAI system (see
the
> > paper at ECDL2004) ... and, yes, you can include the ANY bit because
> > you can really include anything that XML Schema allows ...
> >
> >
> > Young,Jeff wrote:
> >
> >> If there was consensus for how to do this, I could add SOAP access
as
> >> a
> >> gateway service to the ERRoL server at http://errol.oclc.org. This
> >> would
> >> be easier than trying to retrofit it to all the existing OAI data
> >> providers directly.
> >> Jeff
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: oai-implementers-bounces at openarchives.org
> >> [mailto:oai-implementers-
> >>> bounces at openarchives.org] On Behalf Of Tim Brody
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 8:48 AM
> >>> To: Hussein Suleman
> >>> Cc: oai-implementers at openarchives.org
> >>> Subject: Re: [OAI-implementers] SOAP-PMH
> >>>
> >>> Hi Hussein,
> >>>
> >>> Do you think it would be possible to construct a SOAP transport
that
> >>> wraps an OAI2 repository?
> >>> i.e. SOAP requests get translated into an HTTP query
> >>>
> >>> I'm unsure whether SOAP allows an "ANY" container, which I guess
> >>> would
> >>> be required to allow metadata XML to transport through a SOAP
body?
> >>>
> >>> All the best,
> >>> Tim.
> >>>
> >>> Hussein Suleman wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> hi Joseph
> >>>>
> >>>> some thoughts ...
> >>>>
> >>>> on a technical level, it makes sense that if there is to be a new
> >>>> version of OAI-PMH it should probably be layered over a (RESTful)
> >> SOAP.
> >>>> on a practical level, there is a lot of existing community
knowledge
> >> and
> >>>> infrastructure built around OAI-PMHv2.0 so we dont want to
disturb
> >> that
> >>>> without enough of a reason.
> >>>>
> >>>> on a political level, to go beyond the controlled experiments
some
> >> of us
> >>>> have done would require the support of the DL community at large.
> >>>>
> >>>> so, basically, we did the experiments and we know the issues.
yes,
> >> it
> >>>> can work. but, no, im not certain we need to push this just yet.
it
> >> is
> >>>> almost like the planets need to be aligned but they just dont
seem
> >> to be
> >>>> aligned at the moment ... until they are aligned, OAI-PMHv2.0 may
be
> >> the
> >>>> thing to stick to :)
> >>>>
> >>>> ttfn,
> >>>> ----hussein
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> joseph_botany wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> Hi All,
> >>>>> It seems natural to use SOAP with OAI-PMH as outlined in the
> >> following
> >>>>> paper http://aim.cs.uct.ac.za/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=110.
> >> Has
> >>>>> anyone developed a SOAP implementation of OAI? Please contact me
if
> >>>>> you have (joseph at mail.botany.ubc.ca
> >>>
> >>> <mailto:joseph at mail.botany.ubc.ca>).
> >>>
> >>>>> Thanks,
> >>>>> Joseph
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> -
> >>> -
> >>>
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> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
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> >
> > --
> >
=====================================================================
> > hussein suleman ~ hussein at cs.uct.ac.za ~
http://www.husseinsspace.com
> >
=====================================================================
> >
> >
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> >
> 
> 
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