I've made some decisions and posted some samples. Thanks everybody for all your help!
I think I've hit upon an appropriate name... get ready... here it comes... YODEL It stand for "Yet another Open Data Exchange Language". Also Yodeling began as a method for passing messaged from mountain peak to mountain peak using only simple modulations of voice... all told it seems appropriate. What do you guys think? I've posted the XSD here: http://www.depressedpress.com/yodel/yodel.xsd I changed things around a little bit. I didn't make the metadata create new types (to do that I would have had to allow the "type" attribute to take any value). Instead I changed the "label" attribute. <md> now takes a "name" attribute. <d> now takes a "metadata" attribute to link it to the name. This is a little more descriptive that what I had. I've completed the JavaScript serializer. It's included in my dp_ObjectExtensions library. An early beta of this is here: http://www.depressedpress.com/DepressedPress/Test/ The serializer in that library converts JavaScript objects to: +) HTML (for use in a JS dump tag, also in the library). +) YODEL (because that was really the point). +) WDDX (because it deserves some love). +) JSON (because I think its nifty). The WDDX and JSON parsers are brand new - built from the group up and, if I do say so myself, a little cleaner. They may also be faster (I'm using REGEXs instead of per-character string parsing) but I'm not sure. This is all alpha/beta level now - I'd love any testing you might want to try (or suggestions for testing). The WDDX and JSON serializers should always produce packets useable by the SDK parsers. The YODEL serializer should always produce valid packets according to the XSD. The code has been tested in FireFox 1 and IE 6. In any case you're interested take a look. Let me know if you have any suggestions or find any bugs. Is anybody interested in contributing to this? The JavaScript deserializers are going to be a bear, but doable. I'm looking to: +) Rewrite the WDDX deserializer to take advantage of the DOM (which should speed things up a lot). +) Create the YODEL deserializer. +) Create a new JSON deserializer (just so that it can be part of the object extensions.) +) Create a companion ColdFusion CFC that can serialize and deserialize these three formats (yodel, WDDX and JSON) as well. (I really think that the transfer mechanism shouldn't dictate software: by combining all this stuff into single interfaces we're leaving the door open to use the best enconding mechanism for the job, switching to another with little work or just being able to provide multiple interfaces.) If anybody wants to take one of those, or help in the testing it would be very much appreciated. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:215737 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
