Web Services using scripting languages

Hi guys,

There seems to be many XML and soap libraries for the various scripting languages out there. Which one is worth using and which is not? Here are the languages I like to ask about: Python, Perl, Javascript, VB6, VBScript.

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

I've had good experiences with PHP's xmlrpc. 

 
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

By 'worth using' do you mean 'easy to program' or 'really fast'?

Chris Winters
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Probably really fast, and actually works. I have particular interest in Python (although I also use Perl).

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

The Perl interface for SOAP (SOAP::Lite[1]) is incredibly easy to use and comparing it to a Java library's verbosity shows you how quickly you can get things done with scripting languages. The 'Lite' in the module's name refers to how easy it is to use, not to any lack of functionality. The distribution also includes the XMLRPC::Lite if that's more your bag.

SOAP::Lite is not very fast though, and if you're looking for high message throughput you'd probably be better off with something else. I don't have a link handy for this statement, but its an impression from a number of places (I think some university student wrote a white paper?).

I have no experience with Python.

[1] http://search.cpan.org/~byrne/SOAP-Lite-0.60/

Chris Winters
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Just want to thank everyone for the helpful replies!

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

I am looking at the Clarens project, it shows example of mod_python utilizing HTTPS and xml-rpc. I don't know if it is using py-xmlrpc or the regular xmlrpclib, but I'll check it out for a working example of how to frame the api.

Li-fan Chen
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

I have production XML-RPC web services written in Python, and being accessed by clients written in Python, Perl, and Java.

Phillip J. Eby
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

for php you can try nusoap too.

eddy
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

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