= XML-RPC Delight =

  '''Using XML-RPC the easy way ...'''
 
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'''XML-RPC Delight is meant for''': All users that want to have their java components connected using a web-based protocol but don't want to waste time with defining the interfaces a second time in another language-independed description format and then generate stubs and skeletons and so on.[[BR]]
 
     

'''XML-RPC Delight is an addon''' to the XML-RPC specification ([http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec]) and builds on apache's implementation ([http://ws.apache.org/xmlrpc/]).     
     
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== Design Objectives ==
  - have java components interact over internet wire with a minimum of programming and
    configuration effort
  
  - preserve XML-RPC compliance
  
  - make '''EVERY''' type XML-RPC transportable with minimal coding effort (ideally, not a single line of extra code!)
  
  - do not interfere with design of remote interfaces. Within the remote calls, one should be able to use any
    type or interface he wants.

  - neither the client nor the server has to be forced to load configuration files
    or register factories programmatically in order to use non XML-RPC compliant types in remote calls.



== Overview ==
XML-RPC Delight creates remote clients to java APIs that are supposed to be used remotely. XML-RPC Delight does this at runtime, not at compile time! [[BR]]
In case the API uses types which are not XML-RPC compliant, '''java annotations''' and user-defined conversion methods allow for '''automatic tranformation of types''' to and from a XML-RPC compliant representation. Optimally, one can use non-compliant java classes in XML-RPC calls without having to code a single line of code!!


While all the automatic conversion is done, communication with the server is still XML-RPC compliant so that remote methods can still be called by non-java languages.
  

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== How does it Work? ==
  
== Examples ==

=== Server side ===

 - The server side defines an API to be used remotely over XML-RPC. Additionaly an implementation
   of the API is hosted on the server-side
   
{{{ 
interface Api {
  String getStatusMessage( int code );
}

class Impl implements Api {
  public String getStatusMessage( int code ) {...}
}
}}}

 - register implementation as XML-RPC handler with the server

{{{
WebServer xmlRpcServer = new WebServer( port );
xmlRpcServer.addHandler( "handlerId", XmlRpcHandlerFactory.createHandlerFor( new Impl() );
xmlRpcServer.start();
}}}    

=== Client side ===
    
 - create a remote client the use the API by simply calling a single method 

{{{
Api remote_api = XmlRpc.createClient( Api.class, "handlerId", host, port );
String msg = remote_api.getStatusMessage( 42 );
...
}}}