I read with interest that there's an XML-RPC class for Java, and am now pondering finally writing a little application that could work with my new CMS-concept.
It comes off the back of my idea for using the Windows Media Player bloging plug-in to send a SOAP call to a website, in order to update a Now Playing... box. Of course, I should have done a little research before I suggested that. The Windows Scripting Host cannot make SOAP calls without the Microsoft SOAP toolkit installed. And since hardly anyone will have that, why bother making an app round it?
My idea, then, is to expand on the notion of a Now Playing... box, to an all-purpose status indicator. Inspired by the little ICQ status indicators that you used to get, I think there would be a place for a decentralised XML-RPC server that did the same. Herein lies the plan.
- Public XML-RPC server. This would reply to requests about a person's status with either all the available information, or one particular piece of information. Examples might be Busy/Not Busy indicator, currently playing song, current location, or anything.
- Private XML-RPC server. This would be similar to the previous, but would require a username and password, perhaps for more sensitive information.
- Web-client. This would simply dump all of the information as HTML, or take a username and password and give the extra information. This could be on the server, in which case it would just access the database/files, or it could be an XML-RPC client on a different server.
- Java-client. This could be a little desktop app that kept you up to date with all the information on a particular person, or even all of your friends. It could also provide a way of updating your own information, or setting who can see what. Since you might not want everyone to see the same thing....
Unmitigated pointlessness? Probably. But it should enable me to try out some new programming languages and technologies, and that'll be fun, won't it? Plus I've always wanted to have a download page on my website, so that'll be nice.
Cheers,
Derek.
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