[alicebot-archcomm] I think that SERVICES could work for me!

[Gary Robertson]

Yes, Ernest... I think we are getting there, bit by bit :=).  Could you 
flesh out SERVICES a bit more?  Also,  just a side note - how might we 
suggest that a SERVICE use a  'fallback'' or "mirror" server(s) if the 
first one(s) specified fails to respond? This might increase the overall 
reliability of the use of SERVICES considerably.

-gr

At 10:01 PM 8/4/2003 +0200, you wrote:
>Gary Robertson wrote:
>>Maybe in the end I really need nothing more than an General Interface
>>Protocol that can be used for passing structured requests and receiving
>>structured replies between the AIML server and other servers.
>Now we slowly come closer...
>
>We're dealing with following scenario:
>
>              <remote>
>ALICE <------------------> OTHER_ALICE
>              proto_R
>
>              <fetch>
>ALICE <------------------> NON_ALICE
>              proto_F
>
>ALICE, OTHER_ALICE := AIML based bots, implementation nonrelevant
>NON_ALICE          := any other server providing structured information
>
>proto_R  := AIML based data exchange protocol
>proto_F  := any data exchange protocol
>
><remote> is the easy part, because we have full control over the AIML
>specs as well as the implementation and interface details. As already
>mentioned, basically <remote> is just an expanded <srai>.
>
><fetch> is much harder, because proto_F is different for each NON_ALICE.
>In other words: ALICE has to use the protocol NON_ALICE is offering,
>because she wants something from her.
>
>E.g.: To make ALICE fetch the price of a book, she can't tell Amazon to
>use her protocol, she has to use Amazon's CGI URL returning XML. This
>XML has to be processed to extract an appropiate answer. See
>http://kosmoi.com/Technology/Web/XML/Amazon/NS4.shtml
>
>E.g.: Let ALICE fetch a stock quote, than she has to use the SOAP
>service described by http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl
>
>E.g.: If ALICE fetches news, she might have to use RDF/RSS. See
>http://www.togetherfest.net/JScript/RSS.xml and
>http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/
>
>etc. etc.
>
>So it might be wise to predefine services and their parameters instead
>of writing it on the fly - as outlined for <remote> in
>http://list.alicebot.org/pipermail/alicebot-archcomm/2003-July/000874.html
>
>Maybe the AIML could look like following (of course only a raw outline,
>not thought to the end, many things missing etc.):
>
><services>
>    <service name="BookPrice"
>             url="http://bookshop.url/catalog"
>             login="34cxhs74632sao"
>             params="isbn"
>             returns="XML"
>             item="price"/>
></services>
>
><category>
>   <pattern>PRICEBYISBN *</pattern>
>   <template>
>      <fetch service="BookPrice"><star/></fetch>
>   </template>
></category>
>
>Given the input "PriceByISBN 1562056473" the remote call will look like
>
>http://bookshop.url/catalog?login=34cxhs74632sao&isbn=1562056473
>
>and returns
>
><books>
>    <book>
>       <title>Harry Potter</title>
>...other tags...
>       <price>29.90</price>
>    </books>
></book>
>
>ALICE reads the tag <price> and returns '29.90'.
>
>Doing a search, which returns multiple results might be more complicated
>to handle.
>
>I don't say, it isn't doable but I think, we have to be very accurate
>designing those new tags. Thus we must have a close look to the named
>issues, especially how to describe the services in a way, AIML writer
>can use easily.
>
>I wonder, why other ArchComm members do not join this important
>discussion (Vacation time? Heat waves?).
>
>Ernest
>
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>
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