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[[Category:Developing Qt::Network]]<br />[[Category:Developing Qt::Bugs]] | |||
[toc align_right="yes&quot; depth="3&quot;] | |||
= | = Qt and Web Services = | ||
This page tracks current Web Service trends and the requirements of those in Qt. See also the "corresponding task in the Qt bug tracker&quot;:http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-13353 . | |||
== | == Areas for Improvement == | ||
* < | * "OAuth&quot;:http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-6229 . Needed for logging in to e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc.<br /> OAuth comes in two versions: | ||
* | ** OAuth 1.0a: Authentication / authorization is done in either HTTP headers or URL, no SSL needed, but quite some signing / nonce creating etc. logic. There are two major 3rd party implementations: | ||
*** QOAuth: depends on QCA and QCA's OpenSSL plugin and spins its own event loop to fake synchronous requests (which is bad). | |||
*** kOAuth: I have not looked at that closely. | |||
** OAuth 2: No signing / hashing etc. required, expects data to be sent over SSL. As far as I can see this can be easily supported on top of Qt.<br />It seems like OAuth 2 is really taking over (Facebook, Foursquare, Google Data APIs offer it already); sites using OAuth 1.0a: (Twitter, LinkedIn). | |||
* "JSON support&quot;:http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-12761 . Web Services usually offer their data in either XML or JSON, with JSON having become a lot more popular than XML. JSON can be parsed directly from QML (I think - could somebody confirm?), if parsing within C++ is used, there is a 3rdparty solution called "QJson&quot;:http://qjson.sourceforge.net/ and one written by Girish called "qjsonparser&quot;:http://blog.forwardbias.in/2011/01/qjsonparser-parse-and-stringify-json-with-qt.html | |||
== | == Completed features == | ||
* HTTP DELETE (done for 4.6). Can be used for some web services; however not a hard requirement, usually services allow to fake it or use it via POST. | |||
* "HTTP multipart messages&quot;:http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-6222 (done for 4.8). Needed for Flickr / Facebook etc. image upload; in general used very often where uploading binary data is involved. | |||
== Web Services Matrix == | |||
= | '''<span class="update to free feel outdated, possibly"></span>''' | ||
| '''Name''' | '''Access Method''' | '''Data format''' | '''Authentication''' | '''Additional Requirements''' | '''Comment''' |<br />| Facebook | REST, FQL (Facebook Query Language, their own SQL - style language) | XML, JSON | OAuth 2.0 for desktop apps | HTTP multipart messages (for uploading photos) | offers a XML schema at http://api.facebook.com/1.0/facebook.xsd code generation possible, cool! for developing Facebook applications, there is: FBML (their own HTML - style language), XFBML (for using FBML in a normal HTML site), FBJS (their own JavaScript-style language)<br&gt;there is already a Qt Facebook API called Fantasma at http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User:C++ (seems to be quite old, uses QHttp) |<br />| Flickr | REST, SOAP, XML - RPC | XML (SOAP 1.2 / plain / XML - RPC), JSON, PHP - serialized | as with facebook, some md5 required and launching a browser window for authorization (similar to OAuth) | HTTP multipart messages (for uploading photos) | |<br />| Twitter | REST, ATOM (for some methods) | XML (plain / ATOM), JSON | OAuth (login via web page); HTTP Basic Auth (only until June 2010) | OAuth 1.0a | some parts of the API are only available in JSON and ATOM, namely search and trends&lt;br&gt;Authentication described at http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Sign-in-with-Twitter |<br />| MySpace | REST | XML, JSON | OAuth | OAuth | the API supports OpenSocial API, which is "a common API for social applications&quot; |<br />| Google Maps | JavaScript | | | | no real Web service API, but a JavaScript library to be used within a browser |<br />| Google Search | Ajax, REST | JavaScript (Ajax), JSON (REST) | none required | | REST interface is very limited, see http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-search-rest-api.html&lt;br&gt;REST API documented at http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/#fonje |<br />| Bing Search | REST, SOAP+WSDL | XML (plain / SOAP) | none required | | |<br />| Last.fm | REST, XML - RPC, some calls as well RSS and iCal | XML (plain / XML-RPC) | either Web browser (Web / Desktop apps) or getting username & password from user and send that via md5 to last.fm | | there is a Qt C++ API called Liblastfm: http://github.com/mxcl/liblastfm/tree/master |<br />| Google Data API | REST (using Atom Publishing Protocol) | XML (Atom), JSON, RSS | for installed apps: their own ClientLogin (via HTTPS, but then sending the 2-year-expiry auth key in plaintext!), for web apps: either an AuthSub mechanism (directing the user to a google web page) or OAuth | HTTP multipart messages (not a strict requirement, for uploading photos etc.), OAuth | |<br />| Amazon Cloud Services (EC2, S3 etc.) | SOAP+WSDL, REST | XML | SOAP: WS-Security (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/2009-08-15/DeveloperGuide/index.html?using-soap-api.html#using-soap-api-authentication), REST: own security scheme based on SHA1/SHA256 (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/2009-08-15/DeveloperGuide/index.html?using-query-api.html#query-authentication , I saw no password there, strangely) | SOAP: WS-Security | |<br />| Ebay API | SOAP+WSDL, REST, HTTP GET | XML, JSON | | HTTP multipart messages | |<br />| Wordpress | XMLRPC | XML | | | |<br />| StudiVZ (German Facebook clone) | REST | XML, JSON, JavaScript, ATOM+XML | OAuth | OAuth | supports OpenSocial ; currently says "OAuth not supported at the moment&quot;, I don't know if they are actually using it or not |<br />| LinkedIn | REST | XML | OAuth 1.0a | OAuth 1.0a | |<br />| Windows Messenger Connect | JavaScript | | | OAuth WRAP | | | | |||
Revision as of 14:46, 23 February 2015
[toc align_right="yes" depth="3"]
Qt and Web Services
This page tracks current Web Service trends and the requirements of those in Qt. See also the "corresponding task in the Qt bug tracker":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-13353 .
Areas for Improvement
- "OAuth":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-6229 . Needed for logging in to e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc.
OAuth comes in two versions:- OAuth 1.0a: Authentication / authorization is done in either HTTP headers or URL, no SSL needed, but quite some signing / nonce creating etc. logic. There are two major 3rd party implementations:
- QOAuth: depends on QCA and QCA's OpenSSL plugin and spins its own event loop to fake synchronous requests (which is bad).
- kOAuth: I have not looked at that closely.
- OAuth 2: No signing / hashing etc. required, expects data to be sent over SSL. As far as I can see this can be easily supported on top of Qt.
It seems like OAuth 2 is really taking over (Facebook, Foursquare, Google Data APIs offer it already); sites using OAuth 1.0a: (Twitter, LinkedIn).
- OAuth 1.0a: Authentication / authorization is done in either HTTP headers or URL, no SSL needed, but quite some signing / nonce creating etc. logic. There are two major 3rd party implementations:
- "JSON support":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-12761 . Web Services usually offer their data in either XML or JSON, with JSON having become a lot more popular than XML. JSON can be parsed directly from QML (I think - could somebody confirm?), if parsing within C++ is used, there is a 3rdparty solution called "QJson":http://qjson.sourceforge.net/ and one written by Girish called "qjsonparser":http://blog.forwardbias.in/2011/01/qjsonparser-parse-and-stringify-json-with-qt.html
Completed features
- HTTP DELETE (done for 4.6). Can be used for some web services; however not a hard requirement, usually services allow to fake it or use it via POST.
- "HTTP multipart messages":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-6222 (done for 4.8). Needed for Flickr / Facebook etc. image upload; in general used very often where uploading binary data is involved.
Web Services Matrix
| Name | Access Method | Data format | Authentication | Additional Requirements | Comment |
| Facebook | REST, FQL (Facebook Query Language, their own SQL - style language) | XML, JSON | OAuth 2.0 for desktop apps | HTTP multipart messages (for uploading photos) | offers a XML schema at http://api.facebook.com/1.0/facebook.xsd code generation possible, cool! for developing Facebook applications, there is: FBML (their own HTML - style language), XFBML (for using FBML in a normal HTML site), FBJS (their own JavaScript-style language)<br>there is already a Qt Facebook API called Fantasma at http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User:C++ (seems to be quite old, uses QHttp) |
| Flickr | REST, SOAP, XML - RPC | XML (SOAP 1.2 / plain / XML - RPC), JSON, PHP - serialized | as with facebook, some md5 required and launching a browser window for authorization (similar to OAuth) | HTTP multipart messages (for uploading photos) | |
| Twitter | REST, ATOM (for some methods) | XML (plain / ATOM), JSON | OAuth (login via web page); HTTP Basic Auth (only until June 2010) | OAuth 1.0a | some parts of the API are only available in JSON and ATOM, namely search and trends<br>Authentication described at http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Sign-in-with-Twitter |
| MySpace | REST | XML, JSON | OAuth | OAuth | the API supports OpenSocial API, which is "a common API for social applications" |
| Google Maps | JavaScript | | | | no real Web service API, but a JavaScript library to be used within a browser |
| Google Search | Ajax, REST | JavaScript (Ajax), JSON (REST) | none required | | REST interface is very limited, see http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-search-rest-api.html<br>REST API documented at http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/#fonje |
| Bing Search | REST, SOAP+WSDL | XML (plain / SOAP) | none required | | |
| Last.fm | REST, XML - RPC, some calls as well RSS and iCal | XML (plain / XML-RPC) | either Web browser (Web / Desktop apps) or getting username & password from user and send that via md5 to last.fm | | there is a Qt C++ API called Liblastfm: http://github.com/mxcl/liblastfm/tree/master |
| Google Data API | REST (using Atom Publishing Protocol) | XML (Atom), JSON, RSS | for installed apps: their own ClientLogin (via HTTPS, but then sending the 2-year-expiry auth key in plaintext!), for web apps: either an AuthSub mechanism (directing the user to a google web page) or OAuth | HTTP multipart messages (not a strict requirement, for uploading photos etc.), OAuth | |
| Amazon Cloud Services (EC2, S3 etc.) | SOAP+WSDL, REST | XML | SOAP: WS-Security (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/2009-08-15/DeveloperGuide/index.html?using-soap-api.html#using-soap-api-authentication), REST: own security scheme based on SHA1/SHA256 (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/2009-08-15/DeveloperGuide/index.html?using-query-api.html#query-authentication , I saw no password there, strangely) | SOAP: WS-Security | |
| Ebay API | SOAP+WSDL, REST, HTTP GET | XML, JSON | | HTTP multipart messages | |
| Wordpress | XMLRPC | XML | | | |
| StudiVZ (German Facebook clone) | REST | XML, JSON, JavaScript, ATOM+XML | OAuth | OAuth | supports OpenSocial ; currently says "OAuth not supported at the moment", I don't know if they are actually using it or not |
| LinkedIn | REST | XML | OAuth 1.0a | OAuth 1.0a | |
| Windows Messenger Connect | JavaScript | | | OAuth WRAP | | |