From: Rich Kilmer <rich@...>
Date: 2002-02-13T14:56:10+09:00
Subject: Cool XML-RPC service

How's this for cool.  Microsoft Word has a capability to summarize documents
to a percentage of their original size.  The following uses xmlrpc4r and
win32ole to mount your local copy of Word as a document summarization
service!

This is obviously a Win32 example, but the client could run from Linux ;)

File summary_service.rb:

 require "xmlrpc/server"
 require "win32ole"

 word = WIN32OLE.new('Word.Application')
 doc = word.Documents.Add
 server = XMLRPC::Server.new(8080, "0.0.0.0")
 server.add_handler("word.autosummarize") do |text, percent|
   doc.Content=text
   doc.AutoSummarize(percent, 2).text[8..-1]
   #note: 8..-1 gets rid of the word "summary<cr>"
 end
 server.serve
 doc.Close(0)
 word.quit

File summary_cliet.rb

 require 'xmlrpc/client'
 summarizer = XMLRPC::Client.new2("http://localhost:8080")
 puts summarizer.call('word.autosummarize', DATA.read, 30)
 __END__
 The fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
 of the Ring won best-picture honors and two other prizes at
 the first American Film Institute Awards on Saturday.
 Based on J.R. R. Tolkiens trilogy about hobbits, wizards, elves
 and a ring of ultimate power, the three parts of Lord of the
 Rings were shot simultaneously. Part two is due out next
 Christmas, with the final chapter coming in 2003.
 It is a classic epic. It is a true adventure, said Elijah Wood,
 who stars as the hobbit Frodo Baggins. I think it appeals to
 people of all ages, and it has for years and years.

What other cool services could be built this way?

-rich