Developers of Sympa

[Steven Peterson <address@concealed>]

Olivier Salaün - CRU wrote:

> We go on this thread about the SOAP server in the sympa-dev ML :
>
> address@concealed wrote:
>
> > Steven Peterson wrote:
> >
> > > We need to expand the capabilities of sympasoap so that we can get 
> > > additional information about each list, including the owner, the 
> > > moderators, the subscriber count, and other items in the list 
> > > config.  We would like to make the changes so that our work can be 
> > > used by the rest of the sympa community, so we ask for input from 
> > > other sympasoap users about which approach would be most backward 
> > > compatible.
> > >
> > > 1) We could expand the existing 'ListType' record type to include 
> > > the additional list config fields, then update complexLists service 
> > > to return the more extensive ListType records in the returned array 
> > > of list info.  This approach keeps the interface simple, but may 
> > > break existing clients, as some clients may barf when they encounter 
> > > the new properties in the new ListType record.
> > >
> > > 2) We could create an entirely new ExtendedListType record that has 
> > > all the list config fields in it, then add a new extendedLists 
> > > service that extends the functionality of complexLists but returns 
> > > the ExtendedListType.  This approach
> > > seems sloppy but may also be the best way to maintain backward 
> > > compatibility.  
> >
> > Thanks for your message. I don't have a definitive opinion about this 
> > issue. My first reaction is extend the ListType would be better. But 
> > it really a problem because some will have to change there soap 
> > client and they will have to do it the day they update Sympa. May be 
> > some have a single client that connect to severals Sympa web server. 
> > They will have to update all Sympa servers the same day ...
> >
> > My answer is not to the list because it want first to read others 
> > answers.
> >
> > Olivier, what do you think about ?
>
>
> The Sympa software might still evolve in the feature and I don't like 
> the idea that the set of existing SOAP features should be frozen. 
> Extending the 'ListType' type sounds like the proper solution and 
> you're welcome to propose a patch in this way ; we'll do our best to 
> integrate it into Sympa distribution. Please have a look at this page 
> before coding : http://www.sympa.org/wiki/internals/developers_howto
>
> Concerning the compatibility issues, we'll do some documentation 
> efforts to warn users about the changes. We've also contacted Doriane 
> Dussart who wrote the Axis Uportal SOAP client for Sympa about the 
> consequences of such changes.
Thanks for the input.  I agree that extending the ListType is cleaner.  
However, as a current user of sympasoap, I fear an upgrade that will 
force me to change my client applications at the same time.  I will look 
at the how-to wiki and propose a patch.

- Steve

--
Steven Peterson, President
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