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XML-RPC Delight

Using XML-RPC the easy way ...

The logo has been designed by Dominik Heim

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-independend description format and then generate stubs and skeletons and so on.

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/), version 1.1 (Download ​here, patched to handle UTF-8, long strings containing control characters and XML markup correctly; transfer full exception stacktrace).

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 programatically 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!
In case the API uses types which are not XML-RPC compliant, java annotations and user-defined conversion methods allow for automatic transformation 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.

How does it Work?

Examples

Getting started -- Using XML-RPC compliant types in your API

Using own concrete types in your API

Using interface or abstract types in your API

Using third party types in your API -- When you cannot annotate or modify classes you want to use remotely ...

For lazy programmers: using XmlRpcBeans -- Own types without conversion coding ...

Using the Parameter Converter Registry -- Enabling converters even without @ConverterMappings annotation ...

Ideas for Version 3

  • Current drawbacks:
    • based on plain-old xml-rpc 1.1
    • only XML-RPC supported (JSON is also nice)
    • configuration settings are static
    • no handler life-cycle supported

Author

This library was developed by ​Andreas Lauer. It is used in several projects of the ​DFKI's Knowledge Management Lab including ​Mymory, ​Nepomuk, ​Perspecting,​Epiphany and ​DynaQ.
Other projects include ​Medical CPS http://www.dfki.de/MedicalCPS/MCPS.jpg

License

The library is published under ​LGPL.

Download

Latest Version 2.6.3

​http://www.dfki.uni-kl.de/artifactory/libs-releases-local/dfki/km/delight/xmlrpc-delight/2.6.3/xmlrpc-delight-2.6.3-dist-all.zip

Artifact coordinate (using repository ​http://www.dfki.uni-kl.de/artifactory/libs-releases) 

<dependency>
  <groupId>dfki.km.delight</groupId>
  <artifactId>xmlrpc-delight</artifactId>
  <version>2.6.3</version>
</dependency>

Changes

  • added enum support
  • fixed: Bugs in xml-rpc:1.1
    • strings containing only spaces were discarded in method call
    • strings containing control characters caused exceptions
    • strings containing xml markup like (<[CDATA[ ]]>) caused trouble

Version 2.5.1

Changes

Latest Version: 2.2.1 ​http://delight.opendfki.de/repos/trunk/XmlRpcDelight/dist/XmlRpcDelight-2.2.1_04.03.2009.zip

Changes

  • minor fixes (method typos), no new features
  • added URL c'tor to XmlRpcConnection
  • added FileConverter

Version 2.2:

Changes

  • added new feature: unknown, xml-rpc unaware types without annotations are treated as XmlRpcBeans enable with: XmlRpc.treatUnkownTypesAsBeans( true )
  • added support for types Float and float
  • support for sets added
  • new automatic null-value masking feature: XmlRpc.useAutomaticNullMasking( true ) enables the feature

values for all standard XML-RPC types (except BASE64), arrays and Convertable parameters can now be null-values. XmlRpcBeans can have null-valued properties. ParameterConverters can handle null-values separately, but also can rely on the new masking feature.

  • Note: this version is java 1.5 compliant

Version 2.0:

Changes

  • Contains annotation not needed anymore
  • Array support added (also supported: primitive type arrays)
  • Nested parameters and return types for collections, maps and arrays possible
  • 'null'-parameters can be used together with ParameterConverters
  • Better logging support

v 1.0: ​https://delight.opendfki.de/repos/trunk/XmlRpcDelight/dist/XmlRpcDelight-1.0_17.11.2006.zip

SVN Repository

A subversion repository is setup at ​https://delight.opendfki.de/repos/. Use the repository to checkout the latest version of XML-RPC Delight.

Documentation

​http://delight.opendfki.de/repos/trunk/XmlRpcDelight/apidoc/index.html

Also see some slides on XML-RPC Delight (for version 1.0) available in ​ppt or ​pdf format.

Feature Requests

  • add an example how to run delight through a servlet
  • automatically find the most specific converter for a type when there is a set of converters for a type hierarchy
  • switch to newer version of apache XML-RPC (because of better XML and authentication handling)
    • make backend exchangable
    • delight should be independent of any XmlRpc implementation
  • use slf4j for logging/debugging
Last modified 2 years ago Last modified on 10/21/22 11:15:21

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