English Chess Forum

A beta version of an XML interface to the Online Database is now available - testers are now welcomed (with all support, both comments and general Q&A) needing to be directed via this forum

At the moment documentation is limited so you really do need to know what you are doing programming wise in this release

Users interested should PM me in the first instance

Carl,
Is this the one discussed sometime ago?

John

It has been developed by a third party for which I am very happy - the developer wishes (for his own reasons) to remain in the background for now

I have emailed you some client samples John to do some initial testing

Support initially is via me or here

Documentation to go with the interface is enclosed

The client sample only works with PHP5 so extra work is going to be needed for earlier versions!

To quote the ECF official line on this one...

The only reservation I would make is that the existing site does carry the ECF copyright notice, and I would suggest that anyone given access to the API is asked to similarly indicate the Federation's copyright in the data should they republish it on their own web sites or otherwise.

Carl Hibbard wrote:To quote the ECF official line on this one...

The only reservation I would make is that the existing site does carry the ECF copyright notice, and I would suggest that anyone given access to the API is asked to similarly indicate the Federation's copyright in the data should they republish it on their own web sites or otherwise.

The above will be clearly enforced I have to say

What exactly does the copyright cover?

Alex Holowczak wrote:What exactly does the copyright cover?

To quote the PDF documentation:-

4.2 Data Copyright
The data retrieved via this interface is © Copyright English Chess Federation. Use and redistribution
are subject to terms and conditions available from the ECF Web site.

How that stand's up isn't all that clear to be honest but is that sufficient?

Maybe I don't understand how this new interface works. How does it vary from the current grading interface?

Alex Holowczak wrote:Maybe I don't understand how this new interface works. How does it vary from the current grading interface?

It allows remote web sites to "hook into" the data and display that information on their own site without appearing as if it came from the actual real live grading site

Doing it that way allows you to make the data appear as if it came from your own web site

Make sense?

Carl Hibbard wrote:

Alex Holowczak wrote:Maybe I don't understand how this new interface works. How does it vary from the current grading interface?

It allows remote web sites to "hook into" the data and display that information on their own site without appearing as if it came from the actual real live grading site

Doing it that way allows you to make the data appear as if it came from your own web site

Make sense?

Yes, I see. Thanks.

Carl Hibbard wrote:The client sample only works with PHP5 so extra work is going to be needed for earlier versions!

I've downloaded the software and documentation and tried running the sample SOAP (using PHP5) version. No luck I'm afraid as my hosting provider (supanames.net) doesn't support the SoapClient class as part of its PHP offering . I don't know if other providers will be the same ? Has anyone else tried it out? Does anyone used SoapClient from an available-to-the-public hosting provider (as opposed to a company server)? I could install the SOAP extension as part of PHP5 on my own PC (the php.net documentation implies that SOAP is not part of the standard build), but if I can't make it work in production, I can't see much point.

I don't give up that easy however, so its on to the JavaScript / AJAX version, and possibly working out the underlying XML over HTTP (which I presume the SOAP interface is just a wrapper for). Note to self: must get this done before new grading list is published.

Carl Hibbard wrote: The above will be clearly enforced I have to say

Carl,

is this an example :

http://www.dulwichchessclub.org.uk/gradings.php

I didn't realise Blue Apricot hosted the Dulwich site.

John Upham wrote:

Carl Hibbard wrote: The above will be clearly enforced I have to say

Carl,

is this an example :

http://www.dulwichchessclub.org.uk/gradings.php

I didn't realise Blue Apricot hosted the Dulwich site.

Ah yes an IFrame - there is a much "thinner" version people can use as per the West Nottingham site

http://www.westnottinghamchess.org/04_05.htm