Mono & Google APIs

Not Complete. Page under construction [ETA AUG 26 2006]

I should confess that there is nothing new in this page. I you google more you will get better tutorial/articiles/code snipets. I just want to share whatever i learnt.

If you dont know what is webservice this should help you : http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/default.asp

Tools :

I’m using

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.
• Mono version 1.1.18.

So everything below assumes that you have a similar setup. I dont have a M$ W1nd0w5 with me currently. i’ll try to add some info on that once i get it.

How it works :

AFAIK (which is very little). Webservices are exposed as WSDL files. Form this we create a local stub. Our application links to this stub. And the stub takes care of all the communication between the server and the client..

[Please correct me if i'm wrong]

AFAIK (ok. i use this often .. because i really know very little …. ) these are some simple steps

1. Locate WSDL (there are better ways to locate these services… please fill in the missing information)
2. Create stub source.
3. Create stub.dll (library)
4. Write our application
5. Link both stub.dll and our applications

Eliza chat :

I was searching for something different and found “eliza“. Eliza is supposed to be a top class phyhcaitrist. So letz see how to talk to her.

Found a wsdl for eliza at a3.x-ws.de/cgi-bin/eliza/chat.wsdl .

The stub source can be created using ‘wsdl’ command.
wsdl http://a3.x-ws.de/cgi-bin/eliza/chat.wsdl
the above command will output this file chat.cs

Letz compile chat.cs by
mcs /target:library chat.cs -r:System.Web.Services
chat.dll will be created.

Google Search Service :

For more fun letz play with google search. Quoting from google

“With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 8 billion web pages directly from their own computer programs. The Google web search API uses the SOAP and WSDL standards. “
Google WSDL is at http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl

The stub source can be created using ‘wsdl’ command.
wsdl http://api.google.com/GoogleSearch.wsdl
the above command will output this file GoogleSearchService.cs

Letz compile GoogleSearchService.cs by
mcs /target:library GoogleSearchService.cs -r:System.Web.Services
GoogleSearchService.dll will be created.

To use GoogleSearchServices you need a API key. If you dont have one you can get it from https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

Once u get the key, we can use it in our application and consume google’s services.

Info Source :

1. http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_ASP.NET
2. http://www.mono-project.com/Web_Services
3. http://www.mono-project.com/Webservices_and_GtkSharp

[Thank you mono guyz for the info ^^ ]

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