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Step 2: Inputs

The second step of creating a Web Service data service is to select input parameters for the web service. Where do these input parameters come from?

As mentioned in the overview, every Yahoo! search result has one or more data services available, represented in SearchMonkey as a DataRSS <adjunct>. Within each of these adjuncts, there might be parameters that you want to pass to a remote web service call. These parameters are the literal contents of <meta> elements within the adjunct. For example, the site RestaurantHelper.com creates a feed of its restaurant info:

<adjunct id="smid:someID">
  <item rel="rel:Restaurant">
    <meta property="dc:title">Chez TJ</meta>
    <meta property="vcard:adr">938 Villa Street</meta>
    <meta property="vcard:locality">Mountain View</meta>
    <meta property="vcard:region">CA</meta>
    <meta property="commerce:cuisine">Contemporary French</meta>
...

For any given search result from RestaurantHelper.com, you could extract the commerce:cuisine and vcard:locality and pass those values to a remote web service API, perhaps to retrieve information about related restaurants in the area. To select your web service input parameters, such as commerce:cuisine and vcard:locality in the above example, you must specify an <adjunct id>, <item rel>, and <meta property> in the Inputs screen.

Figure 2.9. Inputs Screen

Inputs Screen