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Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

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    Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

    Greetings,

    Is is possible to make a Xbasic script do raw net i/o?

    i.e. get a socket, and connect and be able to pass XML packets between your application and a remote web server?

    Regards,
    Keith
    Keith Weatherhead
    Discus Data, Ltd
    [email protected]

    #2
    RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

    A5 has built-in socket capabilities. Look into the "sockets" object.

    However, there is no such thing as an "XML packet." XML is just a format for storing data. It isn't a network protocol. If you are trying to get data to and from a webserver, there are much better ways of accomplishing this task with functions such as http_get_page(). A5v6 has a complete web server built-in, and as such, there are a lot of built-in methods for communicating via the HTTP protocol.
    Aaron Brown
    Alpha Software Development Team

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

      Aaron,

      Thanx for your input. I understand the XML packet end. I have no choice but to communicate with a special purpose server via XML packets that I have to construct and retreive and take apart. That part of the project is out of my hands. I just needed to know if I could get a direct pipe to run HTTP 1.0/1.1 to another server to pass data back and forth. In this case, the data is XML packets, rather than web-pages.

      Regards,
      Keith
      Keith Weatherhead
      Discus Data, Ltd
      [email protected]

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

        I don't think you understand what I'm saying. XML is not a protocol, thus there is no such thing as "XML packets." If you are communicating with a web server, you can use http_get_page() to retrieve the data.

        Web servers simply communicate using the http protocol. They don't care what the data is, thus it doesn't matter if it's XML, HTML, or MAP (Mom's Apple Pie).
        Aaron Brown
        Alpha Software Development Team

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

          Keith,

          If you use the raw sockets functionality, you cannot simply write XML to the socket connection. You will need to format a complete request that conforms to the 114 page long HTTP protocol standard (see http://www.w3c.org/Protocols/ ), then manage the socket strem as you send this request and read back the resulting response.

          Using the built-in HTTP functions will do all of this heavy lifting for you and let you just worry about assembling the XML. In additon to http_get_page() that Aaron mentioned, there are also http_get(), http_post(), http_fetch() and http_get_page2(). All of these can send XML via HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1. I STRONGLY recomend working with these functions as they will make your life much easier.

          -Lenny

          Lenny Forziati
          Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
          Alpha Software Corporation

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

            Aaron,

            I do understand, sorry if its is not coming across. I know what my XML data looks like as I have this implemented in another tools. I simply need to be able to blast ("put" or "post") the buffer at the server and be able to poll back and pickup status and response data. You have answered my question.

            Thanx,
            Keith
            Keith Weatherhead
            Discus Data, Ltd
            [email protected]

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

              Lenny,

              Thanx for listing the functions... these are exactly what I am looking for. As I said in a reply to Aaron. I have the XML packets all developed and working in another tool... time to bring it to Alpha5...

              Thanx again,
              Keith
              Keith Weatherhead
              Discus Data, Ltd
              [email protected]

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

                Keith,

                What exactly do you mean by XML packets?

                I'm glad you are able to get things working.
                Aaron Brown
                Alpha Software Development Team

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O



                  Aaron,

                  What exactly do you mean by XML packets?

                  What I have developed in another tool and want to convert to Alpha5 is an application that takes a data payload wrapped in XML and further wrapped with HTTP headers. It can be written to a text file or stored in a buffer, regardless, I want to take this stream of text and blast it out to a remote Server that is waiting to handle the request and will return back status and completion information, the exact same way. I receive the XML packet and parse my tags and responses out of the packet and post the appropiate data to the database.

                  As long as I can do a http_post and http_get from Xbasic, I suspect that the tool used will be unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

                  Regards,
                  Keith
                  Keith Weatherhead
                  Discus Data, Ltd
                  [email protected]

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

                    What is it about your XML packets system that makes it so that you cannot just send the whole XML file as one HTTP request?
                    Aaron Brown
                    Alpha Software Development Team

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: Xbasic and Raw Net I/O

                      Aaron,

                      99% of the time I do, however the receiving server DOES impose a data-payload size that sometimes requires multiple transmissions. While this is a excemption and DOES NOT occur often, it has happened and has to be dealt with just the same.

                      Regards,
                      Keith
                      Keith Weatherhead
                      Discus Data, Ltd
                      [email protected]

                      Comment

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