geekhood

XML-RPC

XML-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and [

] as a transport mechanism.

Overview

XML-RPC is a very simple protocol, defining only a handful of data types and commands, and the entire description can be printed on two pages of paper. This is in stark contrast to most RPC systems, where the standards documents often run into the hundreds of pages and require considerable software support in order to be used.

History

XML-RPC was created in 1998 by Dave Winer of UserLand Software and Microsoft. As new functionality was introduced, the standard evolved into what is now SOAP.

XML-RPC was patented by Phillip Merrick, Stewart Allen, and Joseph Lapp in April 2006, claiming benefit to a provisional application filed in March 1998. The patent is assigned to webMethods, located in Fairfax, VA.

Usage

Some people prefer XML-RPC to SOAP because of its simplicity, minimalism, and ease of use.

JSON-RPC is similar to XML-RPC.

Data types

Name	Tag Example	Description
array	1404 Something here 1	Array of values, storing no keys
base64	eW91IGNhbid0IHJlYWQgdGhpcyE=	Base64-encoded binary data
boolean	1	Boolean logical value (0 or 1)
date/time	19980717T14:08:55	Date and time in ISO 8601 format
double	-12.53	Double precision floating point number
integer	42 or 42	Whole number, integer
string	Hello world!	String of characters. Must follow XML encoding.
struct	foo 1 bar 2	Associative array
nil		Discriminated null value; an XML-RPC extension

Examples

An example of a typical XML-RPC request would be:

 examples.getStateName

An example of a typical XML-RPC response would be:

       South Dakota

A typical XML-RPC fault would be:

         faultCode

         faultString

         Too many parameters.

Implementations

C++

Objective-C / GNUstep / Cocoa

XMLRPC Framework
Cocoa XML-RPC Framework: Open Source XML-RPC framework written for use in Mac OS X Cocoa applications.

Java

Apache XML-RPC: Open source library for Java
XML-RPC Delight: Convenient serialisation/deserialisation for Apache XML-RPC using Java Annotations and Beans
: Secure Apache XML-RPC
Redstone XML-RPC Library: Redstone's Open Source Library - XML-RPC implementation in Java
XML-RPC Library for Java ME: Open source client-side library for Java ME

Jabber

pyJabberXMLRPC: Python classes for Jabber
Jabber-RPC: Over the Jabber protocol

Other

JSON/XML-RPC Client and Server: Abstract away the differences between JSON-RPC and XML-RPC
RemObjects SDK For XML-RPC, in addition to SOAP and others
RealThinClient SDK: For Delphi/C++
XML::RPC: Perl module implementation
xmlrpclib: Included in Python's standard library since 2.2
XML-RPC for ActionScript: For Flash ActionScript 2.0
XML-RPC.NET: Open source library for .NET clients and servers
XmlRpc-Light: Client and server library for OCaml
S-XML-RPC: Client and server library for Common Lisp
PHP-XML-RPC: For PHP
HaXR: Client and server library for Haskell