[mythtv-users] JSONP callback support in the new services API in .25

Patrick Archibald patrick.archibald at gmail.com
Tue Jan 17 23:13:39 UTC 2012


On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com> wrote:
> On 1/17/2012 14:51, Patrick Archibald wrote:
>> I am running into the "same origin policy" roadblock while
>> trying to use them in a web app. Would anyone else like to
>> see Javascript callback function support (JSONP) added?
>
> I understand the problem that JSONP is trying to solve, I just
> completely disagree with that solution.  Executing JSON directly,
> without passing through the sanity checks of a parser, just sounds like
> a recipe for disaster.  Surely there is a better solution available.
> Wikipedia mentions that HTML5 has a 'postMessage' mechanism that gets
> rid of the problem entirely.
>
> Alternatively, chances are very good your backend and webserver are at
> least on the same network, if not the same host.  Why not have whatever
> web application you are writing, that needs to provide its own data
> independent of the Services API, just proxy those requests to the
> backend?  That way, everything appears to be coming from the one host?

Hi Raymond,

The "same origin policy" says the port has to be identical too. That
rules out having a web app on a backend server using only Javascript
and JSON. I started off writing my app in Java/GWT which runs on a web
application server like Tomcat or Jetty. After a few hours of creating
object classes, http and data transform methods it dawned on me that
all this could be accomplished with a single HTML/Javascript/JSONP
page. If I end up creating something worth sharing, folks would be
more likely to install it if it were one HTML/Javascript file VS.
installing Java, installing Tomcat or Jetty, deploying my web app from
a .war file.

The new Services API is great and I want to see it used as widely as
possible. Being able to specify a Javascript callback function would
enable web developers to create some powerful light-weight web apps.
Why not wrap the JSON response in a function call when the developer
requests it?

Thanks, PLA


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