Up and running. Seems like I had to add the MSXML4 and SOAP SDK files in order to get the web service to run correctly. So, now I have the first VFP 8 driven RSS subscription. Pretty cool!
The documentation was abyssmal. The VFP 8 help file stated that "If your application accesses only existing XML Web services, you must include only the SOAP Client merge module." There is no such module, or at least no module with a name or description even close to that. Much as I dislike installing unneeded glorp on a production server, I tried MSXML4, the SOAP Toolkit 3.0 redistributables and finally the MSXML4 MSM module from the InstallShield package that came with VFP8. The latter seems to have done it, although we all know that the former bits probably left parts of their "upgrade" behind, so I can't be sure it will always work with just the last step. It seems like there should be a better way to identify and resolve these dependencies.
NCSA Mosaic was first released ten years ago today. The Web is ten years old. How much it's changed, and how much it's still the same. Interesting commentary as always at SlashDot
3:06:02 PM comment []
So, I'm plodding through the SOAP 3.0 Toolkit, looking for the clue on what component needs to be installed on a machine with the VFP 8.0 runtime in order for it to consume web services, and I come across this pearl of wisdom in the readme:
If you are first time user of SOAP, read the documentation.
Words of wisdom we should all live by. RTFM.
And if you are technical writer for Microsoft, spelling and grammar checker help lots!
11:41:51 AM comment []
