RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

[MCL2013]

Does anyone know of documentation or a video explaining the use of a JSON or XML RESTful Web Service to access data from your database? I've reviewed the Yahoo finance example which returns a csv table but the setup seems very convoluted.

Any example would be appreciated.

[Davidk]

Re: RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

Each service will document, either well, or poorly, how to get data from it, and in what form it will be returned. Mandrill Email has wonderful documentation and returns data in a JSON object. I struggled with Dropbox for a while because their documentation, although thorough, was a little tough for me to understand. I used jQuery to help make the call to Dropbox to get JSON data, although probably not needed since Alpha has all the tools needed.

Another API I use in Alpha for Timelines, uses XML as the format to read and write local data and the API documentation was pretty good.

So... it really depends on the API for the service your interested in. Calls to the service and their formats may be a bit similar in nature but not in practice.

Point to the Yahoo stuff so we can have a look.

To help get you started have a look at Video D40 where Bob Moore discusses getting Twitter data feeds and JSON objects.

[mumfie]

Re: RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

Does anyone know of documentation or a video explaining the use of a JSON or XML RESTful Web Service to access data from your database? I've reviewed the Yahoo finance example which returns a csv table but the setup seems very convoluted.

Any example would be appreciated.

Are you trying to consume an existing web service or create one in alpha ?

If it is json or xml you can use the new xbasic functions although I don't recall where they are documented.

The following is a simple example with limited error handling which accesses a non authenticated custom json service.
'ESB json demo
debug(1)
dim response as p
response=http_get("http://localhost:53961/api/salusdata/GetAmendmentsPending","" ,53961,80000 )
if response.parsed_headers.status_code=404
'not found
dim code as n
code = UI_ATTENTION_SYMBOL
dim r as n
r = ui_msg_box("WARNING", "No Amendment(s) found" , code)
else
dim json as p
json = json_parse(response.body)
end if
json.JPG

[christappan]

Re: RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

I'm confused as well if you're trying to retrieve/post an outsider's data via API or create your own API for outsiders to retrieve/post your data. I know nothing of the latter, but an example of the former is here: http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...hlight=mileage

[MCL2013]

Re: RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

Sorry for the confusion: I'm attempting to consume an existing web service from our internal db2 database. How do you define the data connection within Alpha V12 when using a web service request?

Thanks for your replies!

[DaveF]

Re: RESTful Web Service : JSON or XML example

On the client-side, you can make an ajax callback to the server. On the server-side, use http_get for GET requests and http_fetch for PUT and POST requests.

Assuming you can use JSON, use json_parse to convert the JSON text to a property structure for GET requests; and json_generate to convert a property structure to JSON text for PUT and POST requests.