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XmlRpcToWiki

Revision r1.28 - 19 Nov 2002 - 05:40 GMT - LesOrchard

[This idea is still under development, but comments are welcome on XmlRpcToWikiDiscussion.]

Introductions

Exposes an API via XmlRpc on a wiki to allow programatic inspection, retrieval, and modification of its contents. Possibly supports a WikiInterchangeFormat for a common treatment of WikiMarkup? between wikis. See: JSPWiki:WikiRPCInterface (where it all started)

Design

The XML-RPC interface currently supports the following methods:

struct wiki.filterData(base64 data, string contentType, struct params):
- See XmlRpcFilteringPipe
- Note: Only the TWiki implementation supports this method at present
- Accepts:
  - data (base64): Data stream to be filtered
  - contentType (string): MIME type of data being passed
  - params (struct): Arbitrary parameters to the filter
- Returns:
  - (struct):
    - data (base64): Filtered data stream
    - contentType (string): MIME type of filtered data
int wiki.getRPCVersionSupported(): Returns 1 with this version of the Wiki API.
array wiki.getAllPages(): Returns a list of all pages. The result is an array of strings, again UTF-8 in URL encoding.
array wiki.getRecentChanges( Date timestamp ): Get list of changed pages since timestamp, which should be in UTC. The result is an array, where each element is a struct:
- name (string) : Name of the page. The name is UTF-8 with URL encoding to make it ASCII.
- lastModified (date) : Date of last modification, in UTC.
- author (string) : Name of the author (if available). Again, name is UTF-8 with URL encoding.
- version (int) : Current version.
struct wiki.getPageInfo( string pagename ) : returns a struct with elements
- name (string): the canonical page name, URL-encoded UTF-8.
- lastModified (date): Last modification date, UTC.
- author (string): author name, URL-encoded UTF-8.
- version (int): current version
struct wiki.getPageInfoVersion( string pagename, int version ) : returns a struct just like plain getPageInfo(), but this time for a specific version.
base64 wiki.getPage( String pagename ): Get the raw Wiki text of page, latest version. Page name must be UTF-8, with URL encoding. Returned value is a binary object, with UTF-8 encoded page data.
base64 wiki.getPageVersion( String pagename, int version ): Get the raw Wiki text of page. Returns UTF-8, expects UTF-8 with URL encoding.
base64 wiki.getPageHTML( String pagename ): Return page in rendered HTML. Returns UTF-8, expects UTF-8 with URL encoding.
base64 wiki.getPageHTMLVersion( String pagename, int version ): Return page in rendered HTML, UTF-8.
boolean wiki.putPage( String pagename, base64 text ): Set the raw Wiki text of page, returning boolean true on success.
array wiki.listLinks( string pagename ): Lists all links for a given page.
- Returned array contains structs, with the following elements:
- name (string): The page name or URL the link is to.
- type (int): The link type. Zero (0) for internal Wiki link, one (1) for external link (URL - image link, whatever).

Questions

I guess I'm just not smart enough yet on TWiki. Hos does the wiki.putPage method handle access restrictions? Does the TWiki access restrictions even affect the get* methods? -- doug@lathi.net

I'll have to look through the code again, but I believe the TWiki interface works under the TWikiGuest access restrictions. -- LesOrchard - 19 Aug 2002

I added an issue into the ZWiki issue-tracking system here requesting implementation of the API. Hopefully, Simon will implement the API in ZWiki. -- Michael Bernstein - 5 Sep 2002

Latest News

All three implementations are now up to synch with the API as detailed here, which is roughly in synch with the API at JSPWiki:WikiRPCInterface. The one exception is that the TWiki implementation does not yet support listLinks, since I couldn't find a quick bit of code to use in TWiki for now. Other than that, I may add a method or two of my own to the API next, but the main thing is that something useful needs to be done with this stuff now.

-- LesOrchard - 05 Mar 2002

Partial implementations for TWiki, UseMod?, and MoinMoin. Still need to do some work to get them all in line with the latest rev of the spec on JSPWiki:WikiRPCInterface

-- LesOrchard - 28 Feb 2002

Download

I plan on packaging this stuff up nicely when it's ready for general consumption. But for now, here's the naked code as I'm working with it:

twiki_xmlrpc_cgi.txt: TWiki XML-RPC
- Requires SOAP::Lite perl module to be installed
- To install, drop it into the bin/ directory of your TWiki installation.

usemod_xmlrpc_cgi.txt: UseModWiki XML-RPC
- Requires SOAP::Lite perl module to be installed
- To install
  - Drop it into your cgi-bin along with your wiki.pl
  - Edit it, and make sure the var $wiki_script points at your wiki.pl

moinmoin_xmlrpc_cgi.txt: MoinMoin XML-RPC
- Requires xmlrpclib python module to be installed
- To install, drop it into directory of your MoinMoin installation.
- MoinMoin 0.12 has a built-in implementation.

Uses

The original idea of Wiki:InterWiki as a network of interlinked distributed WikiServers?
Conversion / synch between wikis, perhaps one personal and one public
Provide an abstract interface for a WikiBrowser? or lightweight PDA-based WikiClient?
Content harvesting by robot, for preparation in book form, summarization, etc.
I wanted this ... so I could use WikiAsPim?, concretely by writing some command-line tools to interact with the data in my personal wiki's pages and other software ... --JohnAbbe
A generic(!) Wiki GUI using http://www.xwt.org/

Why?

Explicit API beats messing with forms and textareas (See: Emacs:WikiRemote)
XmlRpc is language-neutral, a WikiClient? could access any WikiServer? regardless of implementation
Can serve the purpose of a WikiWikiTransportProtocol?
XmlRpc can be used pretty much anywhere a CGI script can be used

Why not?

Implicit API of forms and textareas might be just fine. (See: Emacs:WikiRemote)
WebDav already covers much of this functionality
TextFormattingRules? vary between implementations, between installations
There is no agreed upon WikiInterchangeFormat to render any wiki's raw content intelligible outside the originating wiki
WikiNames? vary between wikis

Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
twiki_xmlrpc_cgi.txt	manage	10.2 K	28 Aug 2002 - 20:05	TWikiGuest	TWiki XML-RPC API
usemod_xmlrpc_cgi.txt	manage	11.6 K	05 Mar 2002 - 06:48	LesOrchard	UseModWiki? XML-RPC API
moinmoin_xmlrpc_cgi.txt	manage	6.8 K	05 Mar 2002 - 06:47	LesOrchard	MoinMoin XML-RPC API