SDSU CS 580 Client-Server
Spring Semester, 2004
XML-RPC
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© 2004, All Rights Reserved, SDSU & Roger Whitney
San Diego State University -- This page last updated 15-Jan-04

References

http://www.xmlrpc.com/ Main XML_RPC web site

http://davenet.userland.com/1998/07/14/xmlRpcForNewbies XML_RPC For Newbies

http://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.net/xmlrpc-howto/xmlrpc-howto.html XML-RPC How to

http://xml.apache.org/xmlrpc/ Home page for Java XML-RPC implementation

Some XML-RPC Services
http://www.stuffeddog.com/speller/doc/rpc.html Spell Checker

http://www.xmlrpc.com/currentTime Current time

http://www.dscpl.com.au/xmlrpc-debugger.php List of several services

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 2

RPC

Remote Procedure Call

A client can "directly" call a function or procedure on the server


Issues

Primitive data types may be different on client & server

Procedure parameters must be sent from client to server
How can one handle pointers as parameters?
Result of procedure call must be sent back to client



Sample Uses

Unix NFS (Network File System)
Unix license managers

RPC implementations
SUN RPC
Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 3

XML-RPC


RPC using

Started by Userland ( http://frontier.userland.com/) in 1998

Languages/Systems with XML-RPC implementations



Led to the development of SOAP

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 4
Smalltalk Example

| client sum |
client :=XmlRpcClient url: 'http://xmlrpc.usefulinc.com/demo/server.php'.
sum := client 
         perform: 'examples.addtwo' 
         with: 5
         with: 3.
^sum


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 5
Java Example
import java.util.*;
import org.apache.xmlrpc.*;
public class XmlRpcExample 
    {
   public static void main (String args[]) 
        {
        try
            {
            XmlRpcClient xmlrpc =  new XmlRpcClientLite 
                  ("http://xmlrpc.usefulinc.com/demo/server.php");
         Vector parameters = new Vector ();
            parameters.addElement (new Integer(5) );
            parameters.addElement (new Integer(3) );
            Integer sum = 
               (Integer) xmlrpc.execute ("examples.addtwo", parameters);
            System.out.println( sum.intValue() );
            }
        catch (java.net.MalformedURLException badAddress)
            {
            badAddress.printStackTrace( System.out);
            }
        catch (java.io.IOException connectionProblem)
            {
            connectionProblem.printStackTrace( System.out);
            }
        catch (Exception serverProblem)
            {
            serverProblem.printStackTrace( System.out);
            }
        }
}

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 6
Some Client Details

Java Client


Main Page: http://www.xmlrpc.com/
Download page: http://xml.apache.org/xmlrpc/download.html
JavaDoc: http://xml.apache.org/xmlrpc/apidocs/index.html


Two Clients

XmlRpcClient

XmlRpcClientLite


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 7
Important Methods

XmlRpcClient(String serverURL)

Returns a client which interacts with the indicated server

Object execute(String method, Vector parameters)

Executes the method with the parameters on the server
Server must be written to support the method
Returns the result

Throws

IOException if can not connect to server from some reason
XmlRpcException if server has problem executing method


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 8

Smalltalk Client


Download page: http://www.eli.sdsu.edu/SmalltalkCode/xmlrpc/index.html

XmlRpcClient class>>url: serverURL

Returns a client which interacts with the indicated server

XmlRpcClient>>perform: aMethodName
XmlRpcClient>>perform: aMethodName with: oneArgument
XmlRpcClient>>
   perform: aMethodName 
   with: firstArgument
   with: secondArgument
XmlRpcClient>>
   perform: aMethodName withArguments: collectionOfArguments
Executes the method with the parameters on the server
Server must be written to support the method
Returns the result

The perform: methods throw

XmlRpcParseError
Error


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 9

Issues


Client program has to know


Supported Data Types – Client Side
XML-RPC data type
Java
Smalltalk
<i4> or <int>
java.lang.Integer
SmalltInteger
<boolean>
java.lang.Boolean
true, false
<string>
java.lang.String
String
<double>
java.lang.Double
Float
<dateTime.iso8601>
java.util.Date
Timestamp
<struct>
java.util.Hashtable
Dictionary
<array>
java.util.Vector
OrderedCollection
<base64>
byte[ ]
ByteArray


Additional Smalltalk To XML-RPC Mappings
Smalltalk
XML-RPC
Integer (including Large)
<int>
Number
<double>
SequenceableCollection
<array>

Extended XML-RPC Types in Smalltalk implementation
Smalltalk
XML-RPC
Object
<object>
Nil
<nil>

Support for the Object type is limited to objects with no circular references.


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 10
How do you know about methods on the Server?

The server:

need to be documented some place



Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 11
How does this work?

Client marshals (serialize) the rpc request

Converts the requests in to a format that can be sent on the network

Client



Server



Client unmarshals the result

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 12
Complete Request sent to Server

POST /demo/server.php HTTP/1.1
Host: xmlrpc.usefulinc.com
Content-length: 190
Content-type: text/xml;charset=iso-8859-1
User-Agent: Smalltalk XMLRPC version 0.5 (VisualWorksÆ NonCommercial, Release 7 of June 14, 2002)
Connection: keep-alive
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodCall>
   <methodName>examples.addtwo</methodName>
   <params>
      <param>
         <value><int>5</int></value>
      </param>
      <param>
         <value><int>3</int></value>
      </param>
   </params>
</methodCall>
 

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 13

XmlRpc Servers

Java Example


The following starts an addtwo server on port 8080
Server URL is serverMachinename:8080
Method name is: examples.addtwo

How come the server is still running after the last println?

import org.apache.xmlrpc.*;
public class JavaServer 
    {
   public Integer addtwo(int x, int y) 
        {
        return new Integer( x + y);
        }
    
    public static void main( String[] args) 
        {
        try
            {
            System.out.println("Starting server on port 8080");
            WebServer addTwoServer = new WebServer(8080);
            addTwoServer.addHandler("examples", new JavaServer());
            System.out.println("server running");
          }
        catch (Exception webServerStartError)
            {
            System.err.println( "JavaServer " + webServerStartError.toString());
            }
        }
    }

Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 14

Smalltalk Server Example


Smalltalk defineClass: #WaveXmlRpcAddtwo
   superclass: #{Smalltalk.WaveXmlRpcServer}
   indexedType: #none
   private: false
   instanceVariableNames: ''
   classInstanceVariableNames: ''
   imports: ''
   category: 'Network-XMLRPC-Server'
WaveXmlRpcAddtwo class methodsFor: 'utility'
allowedServerMethods
   "Answer a dictionary
   Key is the string the client will use to request the method
   Value is the symbol for the method to actually call"
   ^(Dictionary new)
      at: 'examples.addtwo' put: #add:to:;
      yourself
WaveXmlRpcAddtwo methodsFor: 'accessing'
add: anInteger to: aSecondInteger
   ^anInteger + aSecondInteger


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 15
Notice

We have not explicitly handled sockets in any example


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 16
How to Start the Smalltalk Server

File in the XmlRpcServer parcel

The parcel contains the WaveXmlRpcAddtwo class and loads the Wave web server. When this is done the Server Console window will open up. It looks like:



Click on the “Create Server” button. The window will expand as seen below.

Set the server type to “TinyHttpServer”, set the Hostname to the name or IP of the machine you are running the server on, set the port to the port you wish the server to listen to. Then click the “Create and Start” button on the bottom of the window.


Doc 2, XML-RPC Slide # 17
Now click on the “Edit Resolver” button. The bottom of the window will expand to look like:


Click on the “Add Path” button.


Set the “Resolver type” to WaveXmlRpcAddtwo. Note any subclass of WaveXmlRpcServer will appear in the resolver type drop down menu. Add a path. I used RPC2, which was common when XML-RCP was new. Click on the “Accept” button.

In the above example
Server URL is: http://192.168.1.101:8008/RPC2
Method name is: examples.addtwo

This sever is not running so you will not be able to connect to it.

Copyright ©, All rights reserved.
2004 SDSU & Roger Whitney, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-7700 USA.
OpenContent license defines the copyright on this document.

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