Realmd SOAP communication

[BThallid]

Could/should realmd and mangosd communicate to each other via SOAP?

I cannot remember which thread I remember it being mentioned in, but it was about how the realmd and mangosd don't talk to each other and why something couldn't be done.

The mangosd process actually has to connect to the realmd database to update some things in that database. The SOAP protocol could replace this database access and perhaps fix the other issue of process communication.

It's just an idea to bounce around.

[xeross155]

Communication by normally connecting to each other sounds better in my opinion

[FragFrog]

I agree with Xeross155 on this. Why use SOAP there, other than just for the sake of using it?

If you want to offer services to external applications, SOAP is a great way of doing so - it can provide a description of the services offered (using WDSL) and ensure both applications know how to talk to eachother. But if you control both the server as well as the client it is a hopelessly bloated protocol - performance would probably decrease over just using the database in the first place. Not to mention the current situation is such that you can kill and restart the realm server with no ill effects to online players since all account changes are still stored directly by the world server. Would you send those commands to a realm server, then let the realm server handle them it can lead to inconsistencies and in the worst scenario crashes for the world server whenever the realm server fails.

[BThallid]

One way it could be used would be for authentication of external processes without the access to the database. I believe there were a couple of columns in the accounts table that are only there for reason of external authentication that accesses the database (primarily web applications). If SOAP was there for authentication, then those columns would no longer be necessary.

I suppose it could also be interesting to see an interoperability between multiple development projects other than MaNGOS. Picture using MaNGOS for the login server and two different world server; one world running with MaNGOS and the other running with another. That would of course require the other project to use the same standards, but it would be a start already based on a standard.

I have not looked at all the realm database updates that mangosd does. I was not aware of just how many different messages would be passing back and forth.

I do see the point however of it being more overhead than needed when you already control both with the exception of possibly having external authentication for other applications.

[Patman128]

One way it could be used would be for authentication of external processes without the access to the database. I believe there were a couple of columns in the accounts table that are only there for reason of external authentication that accesses the database (primarily web applications). If SOAP was there for authentication, then those columns would no longer be necessary.

This would be a good idea. However, communication between mangosd and realmd with SOAP doesn't seem like a good idea.