API Comparison
| OPML | OpenMedia | Widgets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technology | XML over HTTP/HTTPS | SOAP Web Services | HTML/Javascript |
| Local browse | yes | yes | no |
| Genre browse | yes | yes | single genre only |
| Location browse | yes | yes | single location only |
| Geo-location browse | yes | no | no |
| Search | yes | yes | no |
| Search within stations, shows | yes | yes | no |
| Search by call sign, frequency, city | yes | no | no |
| Preset management | yes | retrieve only | no |
| Station schedule | yes | yes | no |
| Recommendations | yes | no | no |
| Recent topics | yes | yes | no |
| Authentication | yes | yes | no |
How do I decide?
If you’re hosting a web site or blog and need to quickly integrate content such as a local dial or set of stations, widgets are the way to go.
For applications and devices, you’ll choose one of the APIs. Among the considerations:
- Many development languages have advanced code-generation capabilities for web services – you simply reference a WSDL endpoint and your library generates the appropriate stubs. If you are working in such an environment, OpenMedia may be significantly faster to bootstrap.
- OpenMedia offers a richer metadata model, which can be useful if you are creating a detailed content display.
- Only OPML offers rich preset management functionality.
- OPML’s “single entity” orientation (the outline element) and recursive link format make for a very simple parse/display cycle.
- Both API formats are used by other media services, but OPML is perhaps a little more prevalent.
Bottom line, if you’re primarily interested in a “browse and tune” interface, OPML is the best choice. If you need richer metadata or prefer working with SOAP, use OpenMedia.