Using Perl and RPC::XML Module

dsdee · April 13, 2005

Has anyone (successfully) used Perl and the RPC::XML::Client CPAN Module to communicate with Smugmug ??

I've had partial success with the calls; if I specify each parameter value without naming it (ie, a login with just "email, password, version, APIKey") I can get a successful login. But If I try doing named-value pairs, such as the example below, I cannot login.

Sample:

<code>
$req = RPC::XML::request->new("smugmug.login.withPassword",
RPC::XML::struct->new(
'emailAddress' => RPC::XML::string->new($userEmail),
</code><code> </code><code> 'password' => RPC::XML::string->new($pw),
</code><code> </code><code> 'version' => RPC::XML::string->new($smVersion),
</code><code> </code><code> 'APIKey' => RPC::XML::string->new($APIKey)
)
);
</code>

Anyone else tried this?

Thanks,
David

rutt · April 13, 2005

I had great luck with python doing this. You might want to look at the code in sm_tool.py
as a reference. It's using a kind of old version of the API by now, but you'll get the idea.

dsdee · April 13, 2005

parameters and stuff..
Yeah I had looked at it already, thanks!!

I want to keep it in Perl as I know it better.
I'd be fine for just using the parameters in order without naming them, but I want to be able to not-use the optional parameters on some of the rpc calls by not specifying them, and just make the calls shorter.

With all the (other) geeks around here, someone else has had to have done this before me!!

--david

onethumb · April 13, 2005

dsdee wrote:

Yeah I had looked at it already, thanks!!

I want to keep it in Perl as I know it better.
I'd be fine for just using the parameters in order without naming them, but I want to be able to not-use the optional parameters on some of the rpc calls by not specifying them, and just make the calls shorter.

With all the (other) geeks around here, someone else has had to have done this before me!!

--david

AFAICT, the XML-RPC spec only allows named values within structs. It's probably my least favorite thing about XML-RPC.

Since the methods don't expect a struct, I'll bet the CPAN module is constructing a struct with the name=value pairs and sending them, which I can't parse.

Send them without names in the proper order, and I think it'll work. I'll look into extending the API to work with more complicated struct submission rather than straight values.

Don

dsdee · April 13, 2005

onethumb wrote:

AFAICT, the XML-RPC spec only allows named values within structs. It's probably my least favorite thing about XML-RPC.

Since the methods don't expect a struct, I'll bet the CPAN module is constructing a struct with the name=value pairs and sending them, which I can't parse.

Send them without names in the proper order, and I think it'll work. I'll look into extending the API to work with more complicated struct submission rather than straight values.

Don

Don, true, it did work. But then my question arose from the specification of smugmug.albums.changeSettings which statesxx xx

Arguments:

String SessionID
int AlbumID
struct: [optional, any or none of these can be present]
....

so is that 'struct' statement, then, not so true?? If so, then how can I specify a parameter without specifying values for all the intermediate values??

Thanks in advance,
David

jef · April 13, 2005

Bad example, cause smugmug.albums.changeSettings doesn't actually work.

devbobo · April 13, 2005

onethumb wrote:

AFAICT, the XML-RPC spec only allows named values within structs. It's probably my least favorite thing about XML-RPC.

Since the methods don't expect a struct, I'll bet the CPAN module is constructing a struct with the name=value pairs and sending them, which I can't parse.

Send them without names in the proper order, and I think it'll work. I'll look into extending the API to work with more complicated struct submission rather than straight values.

Don

Don,

Could this be why I am having problems with smugmug.albums.changeSettings, I create a struct with the optional parameters, then call the method like this...

'changeAlbumSettings', [objSessionID, objAlbumID, objStruct], 3

are you expecting individual parameters or a struct ?

Thanks,

David

devbobo · April 13, 2005

devbobo wrote:

Don,

Could this be why I am having problems with smugmug.albums.changeSettings, I create a struct with the optional parameters, then call the method like this...

'changeAlbumSettings', [objSessionID, objAlbumID, objStruct], 3

are you expecting individual parameters or a struct ?

Thanks,

David

Actually forget that, cuz smugmug.albums.create works fine when a struct is passed with the optional parameters.

David

onethumb · April 13, 2005

dsdee wrote:

Don, true, it did work. But then my question arose from the specification of smugmug.albums.changeSettings which statesxx xx

Arguments:
String SessionID

int AlbumID

struct: [optional, any or none of these can be present]

....

so is that 'struct' statement, then, not so true?? If so, then how can I specify a parameter without specifying values for all the intermediate values??

Thanks in advance,
David

It means that the 3rd option should be a struct, which contains name=value pairs for all the optional parameters.

The first two should be un-named.

Don

Nikolai · April 13, 2005

David,

devbobo wrote:

Actually forget that, cuz smugmug.albums.create works fine when a struct is passed with the optional parameters.

David

Does it mean you got changeSettings working????

devbobo · April 13, 2005

Nikolai wrote:

Does it mean you got changeSettings working????

Nope

sib · May 22, 2005

Same problem here...

devbobo wrote:

Nope

I've been trying the same thing. The interesting thing is that I can do an anonymous login using the parameter names
<code>
$req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.anonymously',
Version => '1.1.0',
APIKey => '< my api key >');
</code>
and it works fine, returning a SessionID, whereas if I try it the same way with the email / password I get "invalid login".
<code>
my $req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.withPassword',
EmailAddress => '< my email >',
Password => '< my password >',
Version => '1.1.0',
APIKey => '< my api key >');</code>

(And it's not a email / pw mismatch, because if I just remove the field names but leave the email and pw the same, like below, I get a successful login.)
<code>
my $req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.withPassword',
'< my email >',
'< my password >',
'1.1.0',
'< my api key >');
</code>
Anyone have thoughts on this? I'd rather not rely on parameter ordering unless absolutely necessary, as I find it leads to unmaintainable code...

Thanks,

Scott

onethumb · May 23, 2005

sib wrote:

I've been trying the same thing. The interesting thing is that I can do an anonymous login using the parameter names
<code>
$req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.anonymously',
Version => '1.1.0',
APIKey => '< my api key >');
</code>
and it works fine, returning a SessionID, whereas if I try it the same way with the email / password I get "invalid login".
<code>
my $req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.withPassword',
EmailAddress => '< my email >',
Password => '< my password >',
Version => '1.1.0',
APIKey => '< my api key >');</code>

(And it's not a email / pw mismatch, because if I just remove the field names but leave the email and pw the same, like below, I get a successful login.)
<code>
my $req = RPC::XML::request->new('smugmug.login.withPassword',
'< my email >',
'< my password >',
'1.1.0',
'< my api key >');
</code>
Anyone have thoughts on this? I'd rather not rely on parameter ordering unless absolutely necessary, as I find it leads to unmaintainable code...

Thanks,

Scott

As noted in the Beta thread, the new API supports structs of name/value pairs for all the calls. At least, it does theoretically - testing is needed.

Don

sib · May 24, 2005

Cool...

onethumb wrote:

As noted in the Beta thread, the new API supports structs of name/value pairs for all the calls. At least, it does theoretically - testing is needed.

Don

Ahh, excellent, thanks. Now that I've gotten my app working using the existing API, I'll work on finding some time to convert it to the Beta API.

Scott

Using Perl and RPC::XML Module

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