.SH NAME
lab 24 - call google api from inferno
.SH DESCRIPTION
I wanted to call the google api from within inferno.

I looked around to see what was available. Inferno has
no WSDL or SOAP support, and limited xml. However,
most of the SOAP messages are boiler plate, so we
just need a program to handle the http. The program
svc/webget/webget is something I hadn't noticed
before. It serves a file /chan/webget which
we can write GET and POST messages to 
and read back the result.

With this in mind I tried writing shell scripts
to read and write the SOAP messages to the google
api url.

I needed to debug webget a little because the
POST didn't work. The changed
files are attached below.

The google api download came with sample SOAP
messages. I inserted my key (removed from the
attached files), and placed the string
.B PHRASE
where the search phrase was to appear.
The shell script runs
.I sed
on the file replacing PHRASE with the actual search
phrase then writes the POST message and SOAP message
to 
.B /chan/webget
.EX
<> /chan/webget {
	phrase=$"*
	x := "{sed 's/PHRASE/' ^ 
		$phrase ^'/' doGoogleSearch.xml}
	size=${len $x}
	echo POST∎ ^ 
		$size ^ 
		∎0∎http://api.google.com/search/beta2 ^
		∎text/xml∎no-cache >[1=0]
	echo -n $x >[1=0]
	getlines {f = ${unquote $line}
		if { ~ ${hd $f} OK} {
			f = ${tl $f}
			read ${hd $f}
			exit
		} {exit}
	}
}
.EE
The first line read from 
.B /chan/webget
is the result status. Either 
.EX
OK length reqid type url
.EE
or
.EX
ERROR reqid message
.EE
I use the length returned from the OK
message to read the whole rest of the message
to standard output.
.PP
To build copy the limbo *.[bm] files to /svc/webget/webget
and mk install. The google.sh and spell.sh files
should be changed to point to your .xml soap messages.
Change the key in the .xml files to your key.
Then for example,
.EX
% svc/webget/webget&
% spell britany spars
britney spears
% 
% fn g {google $* |grep URL:}
% g plan9
URL: http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/
URL: http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/plan_9_wiki/
URL: http://www.plan9.org/
URL: http://www.ecf.toronto.edu/plan9/
URL: http://www.ecf.toronto.edu/plan9/plan9faq.html
URL: http://plan9.aichi-u.ac.jp/
URL: http://cm.bell-labs.com/
URL: http://www.fywss.com/plan9/plan9faq.html
URL: http://plan9.att.com/
URL: http://www.plan9.com/
.PP
This also works through an http proxy if you configure
the proxy in 
.BR /services/webget/config .
.PP
I piped the SOAP output from through a command
called
.I rss
which I originally wrote to parse RSS XML.
This just removes the markup and makes it 
a little easier to read.
.EX
.SH CONCLUSION
How easy was that! Well it could be easier.
Is all that SOAP boilerplate really needed?
<Insert your rant against SOAP here>

I wonder if SOAP becomes more common
this fast and loose technique will continue to fly.

.SH FILES
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/doGetCachedPage.xml doGetCachedPage.xml
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/doGoogleSearch.xml doGoogleSearch.xml
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/doSpellingSuggestion.xml doSpellingSuggestion.xml
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/google.sh google.sh
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/spell.sh spell.sh
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/http.b http.b
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/webget.b webget.b
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/wgutils.b wgutils.b
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/wgutils.m wgutils.m
.A http://caerwyn.com/lab/24/rss.b rss.b