XML-RPC

XML-RPC is actually a specific flavor of RPC, which stands for remote procedure calls. If you are new to programming, or have worked with the Java language only a short time, remote procedure calls may be new for you; if you've been around the block in the development world, you may be a bit rusty, as RPC has fallen out of vogue in recent years. In this chapter I look at why those three little letters in front of RPC are revolutionizing what was becoming a computing dinosaur, and how to use XML-RPC from the world of Java. I also spend some time at the end of this chapter looking at real-world applications of XML-RPC, trying to shed some light not only on how to use this technology, but when to use it.

If you are part of the tidal wave of object-oriented development that has come along in the past three to five years, even hearing the word "procedure" may send shivers down your back. Procedural languages such as PL/SQL and ANSI C are not popular for a long list of very good reasons. You have probably been scolded for calling a Java method a function or procedure before, and almost certainly know better than to write "spaghetti code," code that has method after method chained together in a long line. RPC has fallen by the wayside much as these languages and techniques have. There are new, object-oriented ways of achieving the same results, often with better design and performance. Surprisingly, though, the rise of XML has brought with it the rise and prominence of APIs specifically built for XML-RPC, and a gradual trend toward using XML-RPC in specific situations despite the connotations it carries.

Before trying to use these APIs, it is worth spending some time looking at what RPC is and how it compares to similar Java technologies, most notably remote method invocation (RMI). If you do choose to use XML-RPC in your applications (and you almost surely will want to at some point), be assured that you will probably have to justify your choice to other developers, particularly those who may have just read books on EJB or RMI. Certainly there are places for all these technologies. Understanding the proper application of each is critical to your success not only as a developer, but as a team member and mentor. Keeping in mind these reasons for understanding the concepts behind these remote methodologies, let's take a look at the two most popular ways to operate upon objects across a network: RPC and RMI.

The greatest obstacle to using RPC has traditionally been its encoding. But then XML came along with a solution. XML provided not only a very simple, textual representation of data, but a standard for the structure of that data. Concerns about proprietary solutions became moot when the W3C released the XML 1.0 specification, reassuring RPC coders that XML was not going anywhere. In addition, SAX provided a lightweight, standard way to access XML, making it much easier to implement RPC libraries. This left only transmission over HTTP (something people have been doing for many years) and the specific encoding and decoding APIs for XML-RPC implementers to write. After a few beta implementations of XML-RPC libraries, it became clear that XML was also a very fast and lightweight encoding, resulting in better performance for XML-RPC libraries than expected. XML-RPC is now a viable and stable solution for remote procedure calls.

For you, the Java developer, XML-RPC provides a way to handle simple creation of "hooks" into your application and its services, for your own use as well as for other application clients in different divisions or even different companies. It also uncouples these APIs from Java if clients are unable to use the Java language directly. Finally, XML-RPC removes RMI from the technologies that have to be learned to use distributed services (at least initially). I'll spend this chapter looking at how to implement an XML-RPC server and client; I'll show an example of how a server can operate independently of clients, yet still provide XML-RPC accessible interfaces to interoperate with and query its data. Although I'm not going to look at RMI in depth in this chapter, I continually compare the XML-RPC solution to RMI, pointing out why XML-RPC is a better solution for some specific types of tasks.