question soap and classes

[Graham Dumpleton]

"Scott Hathaway" <scott_hathaway at riskvision.com> wrote in message news:<BGoU7.32$pZ.58542 at news.uswest.net>...
> I want to create a soap server that will expose many classes and then acces
> them as follows:
> 
> client:
> 
> import SOAP
> if SOAP.Config.SSLserver:
>  from M2Crypto import SSL
> SOAP.Config.debug = 1
> SOAP.Config.BuildWithNoType = 1
> SOAP.Config.BuildWithNoNamespacePrefix = 1
> s = SOAP.SOAPProxy("http://localhost:8800")
> u1 = s.classA.Login('joe','smith')
> u2 = s.classB.Logout('joe','smith')
>
> ...
>
> This does not allow me to access separate classes.  Can anyone tell me the
> best way to do what I want?

Looking at the source code you have:

    def registerObject(self, object, namespace = ''):
        if namespace == '': namespace = self.namespace
        self.objmap[namespace] = object

And then when it tries to dispatch things:

                    else: # Now look at registered objects
                        # Check for nested attributes. This works even if
                        # there are none, because the split will return
                        # [method]
                        f = self.server.objmap[ns]
                        l = method.split(".")
                        for i in l:
                            f = getattr(f, i)

Ie., it looks like the only way you can distinguish objects is by registering
them against different namespaces. If this is the case you wouldn't be able
to use the client calling sequence you are using as you would need have separate
proxy objects for each remote object, each with a different namespace being
specified.

Anyway, this is a guess based on looking at the code only.

Personally, I don't like how namespaces are used in this way. I prefer a
model whereby different objects are registered against distinct URLs. Using
namespaces like this though has come about as most systems only have one URL
entry point and thus object identification has had to be piggy backed on
using other means.

If you are interested in alternative SOAP frameworks for Python you might
have a look at OSE. In particular have a look at the examples:

  http://ose.sourceforge.net/example-programs/transient-client.py
  http://ose.sourceforge.net/example-programs/transient-service.py

These don't actually use SOAP but an XML-RPC like protocol, but it is a one
or two line change in each to have it use SOAP or XML-RPC instead. In the
example it shows dynamic creation of new objects against distinct URLs but
they could just as easily be set up in advance. Setting up static objects
or services is actually the norm and you can find a mumber of other examples
on the web site of that.

The main OSE site is:

  http://ose.sourceforge.net