My take,
WDDX is a way of describing data structures... associative arrays, recordsets, ordinary arrays, nested objects (like an array of recordsets containing structures for example <ha>). If what you need to do is exchange "programming data structures" between 2 platforms or 2 servers without a lot of rigamarol .... or if you want to easily store "data structures" in a form that's easily accesible - the wddx is a great choice. If you are going to format XML for display, then maybe not. More to the point, Wddx is really easy to work with because the object that is returned is often a native programming construct that's you are used to working with (rather than traversing nodes etc.). If you are using Cold Fusion, Wddx is especially a good choice because you don't really have to know ANY xml to use it - just go ahead and use the tags. For example, If I want to use a wddx data service (like finwin.com) with CFML, I use the following code: ***************** <cfhttp url="http://www.finwin.com/processct/processquotetag.cfm"; method = "POST"> <cfhttpparam type="formfield" name="username" value="Bob"> ..... some more form fields </cfhttp> <cfwddx action="WDDX2CFML" input="#cfhttp.filecontent#" output="myquery"> <cfoutput query="myquery"> #sym# - #last# - #volume# <br> </cfoutput> ********************** Just a few lines of code right? Ok - now check out the a Java/JSP implementation of wddx using my own Java util... As you can see you have to do a lot to use that "really good" JAXP parser - and don't get me wrong, it IS really good - and fast. It's just not as trivial as CF. CF's implementation of the WDDX parser is really quite a marvel if you ask me. Mark ******************** import com.finwin.util.*; // Needed for the WDDXDocument, WDDXObject, & WDDXRecordset import java.net.*; // Needed for URL import java.io.*; // Needed for InputSource import org.xml.sax.*; // Needed for XML Parser Interfaces import org.apache.xerces.parsers.*; // Needed for XML4J DocumentBuilder, etc. import org.w3c.dom.*; // Needed for the DOM Interfaces public class xml4jtest { public static void main(String args[]) { URL url=null; try { url = new URL("http://www.finwin.com/processct/processquotetag.cfm";); } catch(MalformedURLException mue) {} HTTPRequest req = new HTTPRequest(HTTPRequest.POST, url); req.addPostValue("USERNAME", "" /* TODO: Specify your FinWin User name here */); req.addPostValue("PASSWORD", "" /* TODO: Specify your FinWin Password here */); req.addPostValue("ID", "" /* TODO: Specify your FinWin ID here */); req.addPostValue("request", "quote"); req.addPostValue("TYPE", "query"); for(int i = 0;i<args.length;i++) req.addPostValue("symbol", args[i]); int rc = req.request(); // make the request if (rc/100 == 2) { // a 2xx class response (ie. good) String wddx = req.getResponse(); if (wddx!=null) { try { DOMParser parser = new DOMParser(); InputSource is = new InputSource(new StringReader(wddx)); parser.parse(is); Document doc = parser.getDocument(); WDDXDocument wdoc = new WDDXDocument(doc); WDDXObject obj = wdoc.getData(); if (obj instanceof WDDXRecordset) { WDDXRecordset rs = (WDDXRecordset)obj; String cols[] = rs.getColumnNames(); int rowCount = rs.getRowCount(); int i,j; System.out.println("\n\n\n"); System.out.println("Symbol, High, Low, Open, Close, Last, Volume"); for(i=0;i<rowCount;i++) { System.out.print(rs.getValue(i,"SYM")); System.out.print(", "+rs.getValue(i,"HIGH")); System.out.print(", "+rs.getValue(i,"LOW")); System.out.print(", "+rs.getValue(i,"OPEN")); System.out.print(", "+rs.getValue(i,"PREV")); System.out.print(", "+rs.getValue(i,"LAST")); System.out.println(", "+rs.getValue(i,"VOLUME")); } } else { System.err.println("Unexpected data received: "+obj); } } catch (SAXException e) { e.printStackTrace(); System.out.println("wddx:"+wddx); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } } else { System.err.println("The server responded with:"+rc+"\n"+req.getResponse()); } } } -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 9:53 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: WDDX I'm not sure if this is OT or not but here goes... Why would I use WDDX instead of just using straight XML? -there are SEVERAL good parsers out there. -The javascript that it takes to create the "packets" is not that complex. -The "packets" aren't really any kind of packets their just strings that are parsed...XML? and more... I actually am interested in using it and I have no direct quams with using WDDX but why would I use it when we have an XML framework already built for other applications? Thanks- Savan ______________________________________________________________________ Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation · $99/Month · Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusiona FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
