[cep-dev] re: Request to rethink the Module standard return value

[Marcus W. <ma...@ph...>]

Hey,

   So, I'm trying to think about what is wrong with the idea of 
standardizing on storing and returning data as UTF-8, and making Modules 
the common public API of all applications, and I can't figure that out.

  UTF-8 is the XML character set of choice, which means this is the 
highest level of interoperability we could achieve.  It's anal to insist 
on it, but... I believe it's a step in the right direction.  It puts us 
in a better place for data transformation and I18n.  Also, it's a great 
way to separate business logic and display logic.  For example, it would 
be sweet if I could access the same module like so:

 From a Web Browser:
http://example.com/web_transport/view:MyView/state:MyState/param1:MyParam1

 From a REST Web Service:
http://example.com/rest_transport.php?view=MyView&state=MyState&param1=MyParam1

FROM a SOAP Client:

| <?php

$client = new SoapClient(NULL,
        array(
        "location" => "http://example.com/soap_transport",
        "uri"      => "urn:cep-view",
        "style"    => SOAP_RPC,
        "use"      => SOAP_ENCODED
           ));

print($client->__call(
        /* SOAP Method Name */
        "MyView",
        /* Parameters */
        array(
            new SoapParam(
                /* Parameter Value */
                "MyState",
                /* Parameter Name */
                "state"
        ),
||            new SoapParam(
                /* Parameter Value */
                "MyParam1",
                /* Parameter Name */
                "param1"
        )||),
        /* Options */
        array(
            /* SOAP Method Namespace */
            "uri" => "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes",
            /* SOAPAction HTTP Header for SOAP Method */
            "soapaction" => "urn:cep-view#MyView"
        )). "\n");
?> |

of course a WSDL would simplify the above SOAP call.

FROM the Command Line:
cli_transport --view=MyView --state=MyState --param1=MyParam1

Then we could each module essentially do the same thing, except 
transform the XML according to the transport used.  Where that logic 
should be, I'm not certain, but I don't just want component reusablity, 
I want API abstraction as well.

XSL is performs pretty damn well in PHP5 in my tests so far.  I think it 
really could do the job of making the XML into an appropriate output 
format.  What I would love to see is a PHP Class that gave me an IT like 
interface to create XSLT tags.  That would be nice.  I wonder if modules 
(or pages or components or what the hell ever!!!) should have render 
methods for the various transports.  So if one isn't present, the basic 
XML is returned, however if one exists it is used to transform the XML.  
I think I'm going to play with this idea in a module and see how I like 
it... thoughts, insight, rants, counter-points are very welcomed.