Re: [Nusoap-general] wsdl help

[Scott N. <sni...@sc...>]

>>>>
To be honest, my manager is the one that sent me an email saying to try
and make the XML more "generic for business changes down the road", but
how would I do the second example you gave?
<<<<<

Frankly, I don't think that attempts to genericize XML have much =
benefit.  The most generic schema basically says the XML can be =
anything, something like

<element name=3D"foo">
    <complexType>
        <complexContent>
            <any/>
        </complexContent>
    </complexType>
</element>

The schema need never change, but code for people reading the XML must =
change every time the actual, possible content changes.

This is extreme, of course, but the same problem applies when coding a =
series of bits into a single int.  When a new bit is defined, the code =
that interprets the XML must change in order to use the new information. =
 There is, however, one benefit to merging bits into a single int =
element: even as new bits are defined, the structure of the XML document =
itself does not change, so no readers of the document should break.  =
When adding new elements, the issue is that some clients, specifically =
those that statically bind de-serialization of XML to a particular =
schema, will break when trying to handle XML containing the new =
element(s).  Still, if you need to add a new string or int element, such =
clients will break unless you do something absurd with your schema, such =
as encoding all the data into a single string that then must be parsed.

The bottom line for me is that I live in reality, and in reality things =
change, and we all must change to accomodate that.  You will want to =
change the XML schema at some time in a way that forces client to break =
or change.  It is better to have them change than to have you distort =
your schema and XML content.  So, putting bits in a single int will =
cause grief for some clients (where the programmers have problems =
decoding bits), but it will allow you to add bits without changing the =
schema and does not particularly obfuscate the document structure.  =
However, going further to do something like encoding lots of different =
fields into a single string, while avoiding the client breakage problem, =
adds to much structure to the document content which cannot be specified =
by the schema.

>>>>
Do I need to replace 'type'=3D>'string' to 'type'=3D>'xsd:string' for =
all of
them too?  When I view the response, it has xsd:int for my store_number,
so do I need to change this?
<<<<

Basically, you need to specify the namespace for the data types.  Things =
like int, string, boolean, and date come from the XML Schema Definition. =
 NuSOAP always has a prefix of 'xsd' in the WSDL file for the XSD =
definition.

Scott Nichol

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