[ruby-talk:10604] Re: Serialization/persistence/marshalling to/fromXML?

Michael Neumann wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, Kent Dahl wrote:
> 
> > Is there a library or framework for serializing a hierarchy of Ruby
> > object to and from XML format?
> >
> > I'm looking for something that gives alot of control over the XML format
> > ( such as Quick for Java: http://jxquick.sourceforge.net/ by Bill la
> > Forge )
> > and not something cast in iron, like SOAP, nor language-tied, like
> > KOALA.
> 
> Have a look at XML-RPC for something SOAP-like which is neither cast in iron, nor language-tied.
> But I am not sure, it's the right thing you're looking for.

Thanx for the nudge I needed to look deeper at XML-RPC. But, alas, it's
not what I'm looking for. The support for serializing isn't quite as
capable as needed.

What Quick does, is giving you alot of freedom how an object is
serialized to XML, and also help you handle lists, references, maps etc,
in a very non-intrusive way. (Ie, little mucking with your Java code, if
any. Most access is done reflectively and thru properties) 
	XML-RPC only seems to support simple value structures, and ties one
into the XML-RPC format. The freedom of Quick makes you define the XML
format yourself. XML-RPC also doesn't fit as a fileformat, with its
call-responce centric structure.

Since Ruby is even more dynamic than Java, I do not see much problem
creating something like Quick for Ruby, but that seems like too much of
a commitment just yet :-)

-- 
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