Monthly Archive for July, 2007

Towards a friendlier SWX Service Explorer

Published
by
aral
on July 5, 2007
in Development
. 0 Comments

In the past few days, I've been working on making the SWX Service Explorer a friendlier beast. Today, prompted by the error Kelvin Luck reported, I added better error handling that should help with a common issue that people may run into with Beta 1.1: The problem with the incorrect default gateway URL.

The problem

The error that Kelvin ran into happens when the SWX Service Explorer cannot find the AMF gateway that it uses. This can occur due to two reasons: Firstly, if your server is down or you are disconnected from your server/Internet/etc., and secondly, if the the SWX Service Explorer is configured with the wrong URL to the AMF gateway. The latter is the default case with the Explorer in Beta 1.1 because I couldn't obtain the source for it (it's based on the service browser in AMFPHP) in time for that release. It means that you have to configure the SWX Service Explorer to the correct Gateway URL (change gateway.php to amf.php) before you can use it. Otherwise, you currently get the cryptic error message that Kelvin got.

The solution

I now have the source and have begun to implement improvements to the Explorer, including changing the default Gateway URL in the SWX MAMP Bundle so that it now points to the AMF gateway in SWX (which is the file amf.php in the php folder, as opposed to the file gateway.php in AMFPHP.) So, hopefully, starting with Beta 1.2, this issue should become much less common (at least when running SWX using the SWX MAMP Bundle).

However, because the same error can surface if the server is not running (and if the Gateway URL is not configured properly when running SWX on your own server, without the SWX MAMP Bundle), I also added better handling for the error.

Specifically, you now receive the following error message if the gateway cannot be reached:

Swx Service Explorer new Error Message

Beyond stating the problem in a simple manner, it also shows you the Gateway URL (which you can click on to test if the gateway is reachable in the browser) and also provides easy access to the Preferences window so you can change the Gateway URL if you need to.

I hope this helps makes working with the SWX Service Explorer easier for you guys.

Updates to the SWX Service Explorer and SWX Data Analyzer

Published
by
aral
on July 4, 2007
in Development
. 2 Comments

I took today to implement further usability enhancements to the SWX Service Explorer (formerly the PHP Service Browser) and the SWX Data Analyzer (formerly the SWX Analyzer) and to give them both a new, more streamlined and consistent look and feel.

You can see the results here:

Here are the changes I made to the SWX Service Explorer:

  • Replaced the methods data grid with a combo box (usability enhancement). It is now much faster to browse the methods in a service class/API and to go to the one you want (you can press the first letter of a method to jump to it, for example.)
  • All action buttons have been moved into control bars at the bottom of the sections that they affect (usability enhancement).
  • Defaults to the correct gateway (amf.php not gateway.php) and will work out of the box with the SWX MAMP Bundle without requiring any configuration.
  • Added labels to the buttons to make their purpose clearer.
  • Reduced size of the header and made it consistent with the one in the SWX Data Analyzer.

The only changes to the SWX Data Analyzer are aesthetic changes. Both apps now use a custom background color for the preloader too (what can I say, I'm a sucker for pretty things!)

The URL of the SWX Service Explorer on the public SWX gateway will change to http://swxformat.org/php/explorer with the release of SWX Beta 1.2 this week. The http://swxformat.org/php/browser URL will forward to the new one so old links don't break.

I will be recording new screencasts for Beta 1.2 featuring the new Analyzer and Explorer.

I hope you like the new tools and here's to Beta 1.2! :)

New service browser

Published
by
aral
on July 3, 2007
in Development
. 0 Comments

I just updated the service browser on the public SWX gateway to the latest version in SVN.

There are a few minor usability improvements:

  • Changed the default gateway URL so that it points to the correct gateway (amf.php instead of gateway.php) and will work out of the box with the MAMP Bundle without requiring configuration.
  • Moved the Call button so that it is always present on the screen and doesn't scroll.
  • Added a Hide Results/Show Results toggle button to make it easier to go back and forth between viewing returned results and altering method paramaters.

This version of the service browser will be included in Beta 1.2, to be released this week.

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