RE: ILE-native access to web services?

["Shannon ODonnell" <sodonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yep, that's pretty much it.

It's also a terminology thing.  A web service is a really nothing at all
like CGI, except that they both use TCP/IP.  It's good to call an apple an
apple and not an orange, because although it's sort of round like an orange,
it's still an apple. Very confusing.

In my view...CGI is for visual interface(s) between a person at a computer
the web and another computer acting as the CGI server.   A web service is
more like an intelligent tunnel which can take data in from some other
computer, spit data back out, and even modify it during the process, but
which provides no inherent visual interface to those other computers.
Now of course you could create web pages around your web service, but again,
that's not a web service. That's something like java server pages, or even
active server pages, which also happen to use a web service.


It sounded like James was looking for a way to receive data, do something
with it, and then return something else, all without human intervention.
Which is what a web service would do for him.  

I reckon you could simulate that functionality with CGI, in fact, I know you
can, but that's surely not CGI's intended purpose as I understand CGI.

However...if you're limited to V4R5, then I guess you do what you have to do
to solve the problem.



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 1:08 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: ILE-native access to web services?

I don't think Shannon was just being a purist.  What I think he is saying 
is that if the OP expected to provide a "service" that can be consumed by 
others CGI might not be it.

I don't know if it will, or won't.  I just didn't want James to blow off 
the simple answer.

Rob Berendt