[OPEN-ILS-DEV] IDL

[Mike Rylander]

On 3/17/06, Bill Erickson <billserickson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Murphy
>
> The schema is good and definitely a must-have.  For the sake of discussion,
> we might also want to include some sample XML chunks, either in the email
> directly or in /~murphy/...

Also, we'll want the root node to to be a wrapper to the <class> node.
 We'll want more than one class in each file, and we may want to have
things other than classes defined in there eventually.  Maybe
something like:

<idl version="1.0">
  <classes>
    <class name="blah>
      <fields/>
      <links/>
    </class>
  </classes>
</idl>

>
> Thanks for getting us started with this.
>

Here, here!  I think this will be a big boon for us eventually.

> -bill
>
>
>
> On 3/15/06, S. K. Murphy <error23 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Well, I've gotten started; you can take a look at the very rough outline I
> have right now, if you like, at
> http://forest.gapines.org/~murphy/.  The next step for me
> is to work some more on the documentation; make it clearer what I've already
> done and what I plan to do.  If anyone has any clarifications, ideas,
> criticisms, etc... , please email me!
> >
> > -Murphy
> >
> >
> >
> > On 3/15/06, Bill Erickson < billserickson at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > We've been discussing the benefits of defining an interface description
> > > language (as an XML document) for OpenILS system objects.  We currently
> use
> > > a process we call the Fieldmapper, which pulls information about certain
> > > objects directly from the database to define object properties and to
> encode
> > > the objects as JSON arrays on the wire by defining indices for the
> object
> > > fields.  The Fieldmapper also allows us to define virtual objects as
> well as
> > > virtual fields on non-virtual objects for the purposes of attaching
> external
> > > data to an object or defining objects that don't map directly to the
> > > database.
> > >
> > > We would like to move away from Fieldmapper and move to a
> language/database
> > > agnostic XML desription document.   The initial goal of the document is
> > > simply to replace Fieldmapper  so that different languages can define
> how
> > > they want to represent objects, without having to rely on Perl+Postgres
> to
> > > define the objects for them.  Second, the IDL must be "complete" enough
> to
> > > to act as a standalone database schema description so any database
> (within
> > > reason) could construct the proper table layout from the XML document.
> > > Finally, we want to use the IDL to encode some basic permission and
> event
> > > information for the purposes of autogenerating a default set of "safe"
> > > middle layer accessor/mutator methods for the storage server data.  It's
> a
> > > tall order, I know...
> > >
> > > To get started, we've asked Murphy, one of our capable interns, to
> gather
> > > the bits and pieces of our conversations regarding the IDL and to get
> > > started with a bit of documentation for the various XML elements and
> > > attributes we'll be using to implement the first version of the IDL
> (whose
> > > sole purpose is to replace Fieldmapper) as well as some sample XML to
> keep
> > > us all on the same page with respect to structure, etc.  Once Murphy
> gathers
> > > our ramblings and sends them to the list, we can all go back and put in
> our
> > > $0.02 until we have something we can get started with.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Bill Erickson
> > > PINES Systems Developer
> > > Georgia Public Library Service
> > > billserickson at gmail.com
> > > http://open-ils.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "But can you imagine if we all start demanding?"
>
>
>
> --
>
> Bill Erickson
> PINES Systems Developer
> Georgia Public Library Service
> billserickson at gmail.com
>  http://open-ils.org


--
Mike Rylander
mrylander at gmail.com
GPLS -- PINES Development
Database Developer
http://open-ils.org