This section discusses how to send specialized XML requests to a web service using SOAP request files and how XSLT can be used to modify an XML response so that it can be processed by Awasu.
Awasu allows for sophisticated processing to be performed at all stages of a channel's update cycle. Plugin channels can be used to dynamically generate feeds while channel hooks can perform custom actions in response to what happens on the channel.
This section discusses how to send specialized XML requests to a web service using SOAP request files and how XSLT can be used to modify an XML response so that it can be processed by Awasu.
XSLT is an XML technology that can be used to modify an XML document. Awasu deals exclusively with XML data and so is ideally positioned to use this technology.
Channels can have an XSLT file associated with them that will be applied to the downloaded feed, modifying it in some way before it is processed by Awasu. For example, items can be removed from the feed, new meta-data attached to feed items, the order of the feed items changed, etc.
Used in conjunction with SOAP request files, this is a particularly powerful feature since it allows Awasu to query web services (or any other data source that publishes information using XML) and transform the result into a feed.
Awasu comes with several XSLT files as standard.
SOAP is an XML technology that programs can use to communicate with web services. A detailed discussion of how it works is beyond the scope of this help file but in its simplest form, it provides a way for programs to send a specialized request for information to another computer and get the results back.
Channels can have a SOAP request file associated with them that will be sent to the channel's URL using an HTTP POST (instead of the usual HTTP GET). The results will be sent back as a SOAP response which will then typically be converted, using XSLT, into a feed that Awasu can process.
Awasu comes with several SOAP request files as standard.