[Opensim-dev] JSON or XML for serialization in the OpenSim database?

[Frisby, Adam]

Having just worked on a JSON project myself internally - I personally developed a bit of a loathing for the format. I'm personally partial to XML, ideally with a corresponding DTD.

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de [mailto:opensim-dev-
> bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Teravus Ovares
> Sent: Monday, 5 July 2010 4:23 PM
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] JSON or XML for serialization in the OpenSim
> database?
> 
> Not a whole lot of feedback here yet, maybe people are on a long
> weekend type camping vacation..
> 
> I'm partial to OSD/json, myself.    I'd also like to, at some point,
> get a version number in there along with a definition of the format
> for people who want to write integration tools..    however, that last
> bit may be more of a 1.0 thing.
> 
> I think a lot of tools are going to go the way of JavaScript in the
> future for various reasons...   one being that..   it's generally
> implemented in all web enabled devices.   Computers, 'tablets', 'smart
> phones'...   Another reason is it's more compact, while still being
> fairly human readable.     One last reason that I can think of at this
> moment is there are no external dependencies that 'get lost and turn
> into a 404', like with XML Schemas.   I've done several XML based
> integrations using REST and noted that in 55% of the cases, the
> defining schema is a 404 which makes validation and automatic creation
> of XML Serialization classes impossible.  Worse, in 15% of the cases,
> extensions are defined in the schema and then used in the XML..  Only,
> you won't ever know what tags and parameters the extensions provide
> because the schema is 'missing'.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Teravus
> 
> On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 8:28 PM, Justin Clark-Casey
> <jjustincc at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > As part of the media-on-a-prim implementation, I'm serializing the
> > parameters for a media texture to the database.  This seems better
> than
> > creating new database fields or even a whole new table for these
> parameters,
> > both because there are lots of them (url, scaling, controls,
> whitelist,
> > etc.) and because different future virtual environments may want to
> store
> > different things.
> >
> > I'm going to serialize them as an OSDArray or MediaEntrys using the
> > libopenmetaverse library.  However, the question then becomes whether
> to use
> > the JSON representation or the XML representation.
> >
> > I tend to prefer XML for storage representations.  I believe that
> it's
> > somewhat more human readable and that there is better tool support
> for
> > manipulating it.  However, I know other people would prefer storage
> in JSON
> > and I accept that serialization/deserialization there may be slightly
> > faster.
> >
> > The only other example of serialization that I know of in OpenSim
> currently
> > is that of SceneObjectGroups into inventory, which encompasses object
> > properties, object inventory properties and script state.  This is
> done in
> > XML and media entries would become part of that serialization.
> >
> > If there's a majority preference for JSON I don't mind using that
> instead,
> > though I would want a justification for going this route rather than
> XML.
> >  If there's no real argument then I will go with XML.
> >
> > Also, I believe that we should try and be consistent, so picking one
> or the
> > other now should make it more likely that the same approach would be
> used
> > for the next serialization case.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > --
> > Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
> > http://justincc.org
> > http://twitter.com/justincc
> > _______________________________________________
> > Opensim-dev mailing list
> > Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> > https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
> >
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