I created a basic service to retrieve external web pages and I also created a sample scraper - a form extraction service. It all seems to work well.
I implemented these as services so they can be used inside screen widget <actions> elements and in minilang. I want to wait a little while before committing so I can get additional feedback from the community. The sendExternalRequest service takes the following arguments: extRequestUrl - the external URL to invoke extRequestType - get, post, or empty (for REST type URLs) extRequestParams - request parameters Map It returns extResponse - the web page as a String. The getFormParametersFromExtResponse service takes the following arguments: extResponse - The response String formId - The id attribute to search for formName - The form name to search for It returns: extResponse - The original response String formAction - The form's action attribute formMethod - The form's method attribute formFields - The form's input fields Map The idea being you could modify the contents of the formFields Map and then use the returned values in another call to sendExternalRequest. I picture the Mashup services working like a chain - you invoke the initial request, then take the response and pass it through various scrapers and/or XML element extractors. Comments are welcome. -Adrian --- On Thu, 7/10/08, Peter Ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Peter Ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Discussion: Mashups > To: dev@ofbiz.apache.org > Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 1:23 AM > Adrian, > > Looking forward to have progress on it. > > > > On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 4:48 PM, Jacques Le Roux < > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > From: "Adrian Crum" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >> Here's a good tutorial - > >> > >> > http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2EE/mashup_1/ > >> > > > > Interesting, thanks > > Jacques > > > > > > -Adrian > >> > >> Jacques Le Roux wrote: > >> > >>> Sorry Adrian, > >>> > >>> What would be a "mashup engine" or > "mashup services" ? Actually what is a > >>> mashup capability ? > >>> > >>> Jacques > >>> > >>> From: "Adrian Crum" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>> > >>>> I need to add mashup capability to my > local OFBiz copy. My immediate > >>>> need is a web page scraper that will > gather copy counts from our copiers and > >>>> store them as meter readings. > >>>> > >>>> I would like to implement this in a > generic way that might be fed back > >>>> into the project. I don't want to > reinvent the wheel, however. So, I'm > >>>> opening up the topic for discussion. > >>>> > >>>> Is there any interest in having something > like a "mashup engine" or > >>>> "mashup services" in the > framework? If yes, what are some strategies we can > >>>> use? Are there any open source libraries > we can leverage in an > >>>> implementation? > >>>> > >>>> -Adrian > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >> > > > -- > Peter Ford > USA
