Greg’s talks on the new architecture of CmapTools, and its extendability through webservices
Greg just gave a humorous talk this afternoon how CmapTools had been opened up. Before the latest version you’d have to build the code as a module in the server or into the client, learning how to using the IHMC architecture and event module.
This put a heavy burden on the programmer, and on the IHMC, and usually the IHMC could not add the module into the standard distribution anyway.
Prior to 4.0.6 the cmap format was proprietary and sent across the wire in the same java format. In new version CXL (a standardised XML format) and standardised protocols has been established.
Furthermore third party clients can now access the cmaptools server as a WebService, using WSDL , and what those webservices get back is this nice clean XML.
This is a great advantage to anyone who wants to extend cmaptools, for example to add functionality via a service held on the internet. This also eliminates code distribution problems and therefore should mean extra functionality becomes accessible to all.
In forthcoming releases you will be able to call a webservice on the client side too.
Well done to the Team!
http://cmap.ihmc.us/xml
