Using XML-RPC the easy way ... The logo has been designed by Dominik Heim

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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-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).

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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!
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.

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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 ...

Author

This library was developed by ​Andreas Lauer. It is used in several projects of the ​DFKI's Knowledge Management Lab including ​Mymory and ​Nepomuk.

License

The library is published under ​LGPL.

Download

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

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 maven support - added in upcoming 2.5 release
• for client proxies: also support abstract classes (and not only interfaces) - added in upcoming 2.5 release
• set a custom converter for unknown types - added in upcoming 2.5 release
• add a generic serialization converter
• support automatic conversion of enums