An update on Python SOAP toolkits

Last week, I struggled with implementing a rough SOAP service in Zope 3 and Python. At the time, the state of SOAP libraries and toolkits for Python appeared to be in rough shape. The only toolkit that seemed to cover enough ground was ZSI, which also had a recent 2.0 release. ZSI, however, is a sprawling and incoherant mess. Given the SOAP, WSDL, and WS-* specs, who could expect anything more? It was a difficult system to work with as I had to do some brutal massaging of typecodes in order to get my client application to respond.

At the end of last week, TGWebServices appeared on the scene. TGWebServices brings XML-RPC and SOAP to the TurboGears web framework. It looked like it was much easier to use than what I had to cobble together.

And this week, soaplib showed signs of life with a new release. Soaplib appears to be easier to comprehend than ZSI, and it feels more modern. I wish it had been available a week ago.