[xml] Using HTTP POST from XSLT to access webservices

["Mikhail S Grushinskiy" <mgrushinskiy comcast net>]

Hello all,

 

I'm thinking about developing xslt extension element to allow HTTP posting from XSLT, which

can be especially useful for web services. Does nanohttp in libxslt support HTTP POST?

Has anyone worked on something like that? Are there any proposals for dealing with HTTP POSTs from

XSLT (may be in exslt)?

 

It would be nice if input for 'post' could be prepared by regular XSLT and output XML could be parsed by XSLT,

something like:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:exsl="http://exslt.org/common" extension-element-prefixes="exsl">
 <xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:variable name="phone">111-111-1111</xsl:variable>
  <xml>
   <exsl:post url=""http://zip.locator.com/GetZipByPhone">http://zip.locator.com/GetZipByPhone" result="xml">
    <exsl:post-in>
     <!-- PREPARE XML DATA FOR HTTP POST -->
     <xml>
      <home-phone>
       <xsl:value-of select="$phone"/>
      </home-phone>
     </xml>
    </exsl:post-in>
    <exsl:post-out>
     <!-- APPLY XSLT TO RESULT OF HTTP POST -->
     <xsl:for-each select="/xml/PhoneLocation">
      <Location ZipCode="{ zip}" />
     </xsl:for-each>
    </exsl:post-out>
   </exsl:post>
  </xml>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

 

would do HTTP POST of

 

<xml>
      <home-phone>111-111-1111</home-phone>
</xml>

and given response of

 

<xml>

     <PhoneLocation zip="01234"/>

</xml>

 

would produce output

 

<xml>

      <Location ZipCode="01234" />

</xml>

 

 

(All this is hypothetical example).

 

Does this idea make sense? Or does something like this already exist?

 

Thank you for your suggestions :).

 

--MG

 

 

 

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