Using Web Services with GBasic (GoDB) This article shall peep into invoking a webservice from the internet through GoDB. Iam using HTTPDNLD file and XML commands of GoDB.

The application takes the input of a host name and queries a WHOIS server through webservices and gets the detailed information.

For this, I am using http://www.webservicex.net . You can use other WHOIS server though.

Configuring the proxy:

for those having a proxy, you need to configure first before using the application. To go to Configuration screen (inbuilt with GoDB) press Function key 9 (F9). Fillin only the 'ProxyIP' field with your Proxy server. Leave other fields. Click 'save' and 'Go Home'



















Querying the web:


the httpdnld command sends a http request with a host name as the parameter to a webservice. The webservice inturn queries a whois server and sends the result back. The result is saved in a file called test.xml



path$=http://www.webservicex.net/whois.asmx/GetWhoIS?HostName=+trim$(#txtName$)
RET=HTTPDNLD(path$,"","TEST.XML",1)
if RET=-3 then
msgbox "unable to get file"
endif

Parsing the XML:

Now, having created a XML file, we need to parse and display the content in the application for view. Since, the parse is inbuilt in GoDB, my work is much reduced- precisely four lines.

h=XMLParseFile("TEST.XML",1)

if ret>0 then
ret= XMLGoToFirst(h)
while XMLFetch(h,"")=1
str$=str$+ xvalue$(h)
pprint xpath$(h) ; xvalue$(h)

wend
endif

ret=XMLClose(h)
#txtRes$=str$



Overall, if you see, I put up a simple form to enter the host name, a button to query the web and a text area to print the queried results. I stored the data in XML format, parsed it and and displayed in the text area. A variance can be, instead of saving it in XML format, we can also save the same in .txt format and display.



HTTPDOWNLOAD.ZIP  ¶ 1:28 AM