Bits and Pieces

WSO2 WSF/C 1.0.0 released

WSO2 recently released the version 1.0.0 of Web Services framework in C. This is the most comprehensive web services stack available in C and is based on Apache Axis2/C (web service core), Apache Sandesha2/C (WSRM), Apache Rampart/C (WS-Sec), and Apache Savan/C (WS-Eventing) ...etc. This bundle includes other tools such as "wsclient" command line tool to invoke Web Services. You can check it out here

Axis2/C on Solaris and MacOS

Axis2/C now works on two more platforms. I was able to port core Axis2/C and Rampart/C to Solaris and Mac OS X. It was successfully compiled and tested on Mac OS 10.4.9 (both Intel and PPC) as well as Solaris 10 (Intel). Unavailability of a Solaris 10 SPARC box prevents me from testing it on that platform. If someone has access to such a box, you're welcome to share your experience on Axis2/C mailing lists.

Apache Axis2/C 1.0.0 Released

I am happy that Axis2/C project that I was a member sometime back was able to do its 1.0 release. Here is the release note:

Apache Axis2/C Team is pleased to announce the release of Apache Axis2/C version 1.0.0
You can download this release from
http://ws.apache.org/axis2/c/download.cgi

Key Features

1. Support for one-way messaging (In-Only) and request response messaging (In-Out)
2. Client APIs: Easy to use service client API and more advanced operation client API
3. Transports supported: HTTP
a. Inbuilt HTTP server called simple axis server
b. Apache2 httpd module called mod_axis2 for server side
c. IIS module for server side
d. Client transport with ability to enable SSL support
e. libcurl based client transport
4. Module architecture, mechanism to extend the SOAP processing model
5. WS-Addressing support, both the submission (2004/08) and final (2005/08) versions, implemented as a module
6. MTOM/XOP support
7. AXIOM, an XML object model optimized for SOAP 1.1/1.2 messages; This has complete XML infoset support
8. XML parser abstraction
a. Libxml2 wrapper
b. Guththila pull parser support
9. Both directory based and archive based deployment models for deploying services and modules
10. Description hierarchy providing access to static data of Axis2/C runtime (configuration, service groups, services, operations and messages)
11. Context hierarchy providing access to dynamic Axis2/C runtime information(corresponding contexts to map to each level of description hierarchy)
12. Message receiver abstraction
a. Inbuilt raw XML message receiver
13. Code generation tool for stub and skeleton generation for a given WSDL (based on Java tool)
a. Axis Data Binding (ADB) support
14. Transport proxy support
15. REST support (more POX like) using both HTTP POST and GET
16. Comprehensive documentation
a. Axis2/C Manual

Major Changes Since Last Release

1. Many Bug Fixes
2. IIS module for server side
3. libcurl based client transport
4. Improvements to overall API to make it more user friendly, stable and binary compatible
5. Transport proxy support
6. Memory leak fixes
We welcome your early feedback on this implementation.
Thank you for your interest in Axis2/C.

-- Apache Axis2/C Team --

Sri Lanka Advances to Cricket World Cup Finals

Wow .. what a performance by the Sri Lankans today in the semi finals to beat New Zealand. Even though it is not the usual Sri Lankan way of scoring, 289 was a good score after the initial wickets.
BTW ... I was dare enough to watch the final 10 overs, risking my finals (next week) and couple of research projects.

How to be an expert

Recently I found this Creating Passionate Users blog. One of the interesting posts is "how to be an expert". The image below is courtesy of CPU blog.

Happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year

I wish you all the Sri Lankans a very happy new year (Subha aluth awuruddak wewa !!!)

Along with the happiness of the new year, I feel somewhat sad, because this is the first new year day I am spending away from my home. In the past even with lot of work (in my undergrad days, exams used to follow immediately after new year holidays) I somehow managed to go home and spend the new year with my parents, which seems impossible for me now. But I should get used to it since at least 4 more years, I have to stay in US to complete my degree (unless I decide to drop out :) )

More Snow

We had a somewhat heavy snowfall and I thought capturing some interesting moments with my camera. After spending so much time in subzero temperatures with bare hands (I realized that operating the camera with gloves on is impossible - at least for me) I couldn't feel my hands till half an hour (and still paining) - but the images are worthwhile that pain.