Programming Web Services with XML-RPC

Chapter 2. The XML-RPC Protocol

This chapter describes the XML-RPC protocol -- that is, the sequence and structure of requests and responses required to invoke computations on a remote machine using XML and HTTP. It also covers XML-RPC’s data types, a subset of those commonly found in programming languages. If you plan to use an available XML-RPC library to create XML-RPC clients and servers, you don’t need to understand all the details of the XML-RPC protocol. However, when you need to debug your service, you’ll find it quite helpful to know about the protocol details. This chapter also provides the information you need to implement your own XML-RPC library, should there not be a library for your particular environment.

This chapter, and the rest of the book for that matter, assume that you have a basic understanding of both XML and HTTP. This knowledge is critical to your ability to understand XML-RPC. If you don’t know much about XML or HTTP, or if you just want to refresh your memory about the basics, you should check out Appendix A and Appendix B.

The current chapter explains the XML-RPC specification (found online at http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec), which is the first point of reference for the technology. In addition, the chapter draws upon current practice to recommend guidelines for implementation and use, and to highlight areas for future specialization or extension of the technology.

Choreography

An XML-RPC call is conducted between two parties: the client (the calling process) ...