God's Web Service
Browsing around the WS Index recently I came across the the Bible Web Service.
The host site http://www.stgregorioschurchdc.org didn't look promising, but I pressed on and pointed my current favourite 'quick and dirty' soap client (XML Spy Enterprise Edition) at the wsdl file.
Sure enough - replacing
<verses xsi:type="xsd:string">string</verses>
with
<verses xsi:type="xsd:string>Genesis 1:1</verses>
in the auto generated Soap request and choosing 'Send request to server' from the Soap menu and there it was in the Soap response window:
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The interface is flexible:
Genesis 1:1-10 will bring back verses 1 to 10
Genesis 1:5- will bring back verse 5 to the end of the chapter and
Genesis 3:20-24 will produce the elegant verses ending with:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
A salutary tale!
I immediately started to think of uses for this marvellous service. After all this is a serious resource, offered in lovely Soap XML and much more useful than most of the services listed on directories like XMethods and SalCentral (e.x. Number adder - Zip code lookup - Stock quote [whose interested!] - String reverser [yes, pass it a string and it will reverse it for you !?!]).
[Official retraction: XMethods and SalCentral are really good web service resources]
Ideas:
Word macros (Insert a Verse) in 'sermon' templates using the Office Web Services Toolkit aimed at the church industry.
'Verse of the day' instead of 'Tip of the day' with your new killer app (possibly more useful).
There are possibilities here. These could be better than my last great web services 'idea' - A component to insert adverts in Soap headers.
Commercial opportunities aside, it's nice to see a very very old institution (I mean - when exactly was Adam?) using such a very new technology. A sign perhaps of the goodness of web services.
I recommend this service to all.
All details from http://www.stgregorioschurchdc.org/wsdl/Bible.wsdl.