[ic] *ML to transmit an entire catalog, ECML

[Mike Heins]

Quoting cfm@maine.com (cfm@maine.com):
> On Tue, Mar 06, 2001 at 12:26:29PM -0500, Mike Heins wrote:
> > Quoting cfm@maine.com (cfm@maine.com):
> > > 
> > > re: *ML to transmit an entire catalog and ECML, two questions
> > > 
> > > 1)
> > > I'm looking for a *ML schema suitable for transmitting an entire
> > > catalog.  There must be such (or more than one) thing.  Can anyone
> > > suggest what to look at?
> > 
> > Not the foggiest idea what you are talking about. What is *ML?
> 
> Why does that happen to me?  Makes perfect sense to **me**.  :-)
> 
> We're looking at ways clients and other sites can transmit their 
> catalog data to us.  The analogy would be RDF/RSS for articles.

I would use SOAP, and transmit the value gained by a DumpStructure
file. Then do a query of all data in a table with ($ary, $fa, $fh) =
$db->query() and transmit that. Should be almost complete -- especially
if you use the new "keep all pages and files in the database" function
of 4.7.

But I have never gotten around to doing this, because then I would
have to write the functions to actually *do* something with it when
I got it. 8-)

> > > 2)
> > > Along the path I looked at ECML, a wallet API.  If we converted
> > > our checkout forms as they suggest, does this mean that any ECML
> > > wallet would just work with our catalogs?  I note that Yahoo 
> > > wallet is not on the list at www.ecml.org.
> > > 
> > > This would be a painful transition, mapping and reorganizing all those
> > > fields, but my experience is that any solid standard is almost always
> > > better than the results of many years of ad hoc evolution.  :-)
> > 
> > Have you looked at Vend::ECML? It remaps the field names to Interchange
> > names and vice versa for sessions....
> 
> Yes.  We'd aim at aligning our field names with it long term.  But
> only IF it actually works.  That's the real question.  I guess it
> must or that module would not have been written, no?
> 

No, not really. I did that module the day that ECML was announced,
just to show off having support for ECML the same day. Also to show how
ridiculous the grandiose announcement about it was. If you can gen full
support in one day, it ain't much.  But it may work. It works in Minivend,
must confess I have never tested it with Interchange more than cursorily.

-- 
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phone +1.513.523.7621 fax 7501 <mheins@redhat.com>

Be patient. God isn't finished with me yet.  -- unknown