moodlews_gson: A Java repository from patrickpollet

This is a collection of Java classes that allow easy access to OK Tech Moodle Web Service running in REST mode
from Java clients using Google GSON  library such as Android/iPhone  but also regular java programs 

1) Usage :
----------
Copy the dist/moodlews_gson_x.x.x.jar in the classpath of your project and call its methods
See classes Test1.java in net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson 

Get the latest gson-xxxx.jar from Google site http://code.google.com/p/google-gson/ and add it to the classpath of your project.
All testings were done with gson-1.7.1.jar and latest gson-2.2.1.jar , that are also provided for your convenience in the lib/ directory. 

2) Running the test classes against your Moodle server :
-------------------------------------------------------
The tests classes require the URL of a Moodle server and a login/password for an user with sufficient capabilities.
These data are expected to be in a file named net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson.Constantes.java

- rename the provided file Constantes.java.dist to Constantes.java
- edit it to provide the actual informations  

package net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson;
public class Constantes {
	// TESTING adjust to your site
	public static final String MOODLE_URL = "http://localhost/moodle.195/";
	public  static final String LOGIN = "somemoodleuserwithgood capabilities";
	public static final String PWD = "itspassword";
	public static final boolean WS_DEBUG = false;
	// END TESTING
}

- rebuild your project

3) What version of OK Tech WSDL to use ? 
----------------------------------------
Historically the OK Tech WS was a SOAP only server using a manually edited WSDL file (wspp/moodlewsdl.xml) that was sent to clients
 (and also used by server) by a call to  http://yourmoodle/wspp/wsdl_pp.php.
 
In this WSDL returned data as arrays where placed in an XML attribute named courses, users ... and were extracted by an extraneous call
to a method getXXX() such as :

old java code when importing net.patrickpollet.moodlewsold.core.*  (see net.patrickpollet.moodlewsold.Test1.java)

			MoodleWSBindingStub moodle=new MoodleWSBindingStub(MOODLE_SERVICE,MOODLE_NAMESPACE,Constantes.WS_DEBUG);
			LoginReturn lr = moodle.login(Constantes.LOGIN, Constantes.PWD);
			int me =moodle.get_my_id(lr.getClient(),lr.getSessionkey());
			System.out.println ("me "+me);
			CourseRecord []ret = moodle.get_my_courses(lr.getClient(),lr.getSessionkey(), me,null).getCourses();

Starting at revision 1.8, another simpler wsdl file is provided that is automatically generated by the
wshelper utility from the PHP docs comments in the class mdl_soapserver.class.php file. by the script wspp/genwsdl.php :

The new address of the wsdl is  http://yourmoodle/wspp/wsdl_pp2.php and the service script is at http://yourmoodle/wspp/service_pp2.php

In this new WSDL, returned arrays are directly available :  

new java code when importing net.patrickpollet.moodlews.core.* (see net.patrickpollet.moodlews.Test1.java)

 			Mdl_soapserverBindingStub moodle = new Mdl_soapserverBindingStub(MOODLE_SERVICE,MOODLE_NAMESPACE, Constantes.WS_DEBUG);
			LoginReturn lr = moodle.login(Constantes.LOGIN, Constantes.PWD);
 			int me = moodle.get_my_id(lr.getClient(),lr.getSessionkey());
			System.out.println("me " + me);
			// NO NEED TO CALL 	getCourses() to fetch the returned array , but parameter userid is now a String 
			CourseRecord[] ret = moodle.get_my_courses(lr.getClient(), lr.getSessionkey(), "" + me, null);


In REST mode, usage of this new version i.e. classes generated in net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson is now mandatory for REST java clients.




4) Where is the list of available operations ?
-----------------------------------------------
The list of operations is exactly the same at the operations provided by the SOAP version and will be available here :

http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~ppollet/moodlews/java/gson/moodlews/net/patrickpollet/moodlews_gson/core/Mdl_restserverBindingStub.html
 
In the meantime you may consult the ksoap2 version :

http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~ppollet/moodlews/java/ksoap2/moodlews/net/patrickpollet/moodlews/core/Mdl_soapserverBindingStub.html 
 
5) Updating the helper classes :
---------------------------------
In case of evolution of the WSDL emitted by OK Tech WS, you must regenerate your helper classes using the provided 
WSDL2gson program (see net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson.wsdl package) which is a modified version of Apache's axis 1.4 WSDL2Java utility modified for gson

to get a revised version with the new WSDL use 

java java net.patrickpollet.gson.wsdl.WSDL2gson -p net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson.core -o /tmp http://yourmoodle/wspp/wsdl_pp2.php

in both cases you MUST have the content of lib/ directory in your classpath so from the directory where your Java IDE is placing the compiled classes (bin in Eclipse)
you should type 


java -cp '.:../lib/*' net.patrickpollet.gson.wsdl.WSDL2gson -p net.patrickpollet.moodlews_gson.core -o /tmp http://yourmoodle/wspp/wsdl_pp2.php

them make a jar file inside the bin directory and copy it to your actual projet.


enjoy

PP 23/04/2011