Frontier::RPC2(3)					User Contributed Perl Documentation					 Frontier::RPC2(3)

NAME

       Frontier::RPC2 - encode/decode RPC2 format XML

SYNOPSIS

	use Frontier::RPC2;

	$coder = Frontier::RPC2->new;

	$xml_string = $coder->encode_call($method, @args);
	$xml_string = $coder->encode_response($result);
	$xml_string = $coder->encode_fault($code, $message);

	$call = $coder->decode($xml_string);

	$response_xml = $coder->serve($request_xml, $methods);

	$boolean_object = $coder->boolean($boolean);
	$date_time_object = $coder->date_time($date_time);
	$base64_object = $coder->base64($base64);
	$int_object = $coder->int(42);
	$float_object = $coder->float(3.14159);
	$string_object = $coder->string("Foo");

DESCRIPTION

       Frontier::RPC2 encodes and decodes XML RPC calls.

       $coder = Frontier::RPC2->new( OPTIONS )
	   Create a new encoder/decoder.  The following option is supported:

	   encoding
	       The XML encoding to be specified in the XML declaration of encoded RPC requests or responses.  Decoded results may have a different
	       encoding specified; XML::Parser will convert decoded data to UTF-8.  The default encoding is none, which uses XML 1.0's default of
	       UTF-8.  For example:

		$server = Frontier::RPC2->new( 'encoding' => 'ISO-8859-1' );

	   use_objects
	       If set to a non-zero value will convert incoming <i4>, <float>, and <string> values to objects instead of scalars.  See int(),
	       float(), and string() below for more details.

       $xml_string = $coder->encode_call($method, @args)
	   `"encode_call"' converts a method name and it's arguments into an RPC2 `"methodCall"' element, returning the XML fragment.

       $xml_string = $coder->encode_response($result)
	   `"encode_response"' converts the return value of a procedure into an RPC2 `"methodResponse"' element containing the result, returning
	   the XML fragment.

       $xml_string = $coder->encode_fault($code, $message)
	   `"encode_fault"' converts a fault code and message into an RPC2 `"methodResponse"' element containing a `"fault"' element, returning
	   the XML fragment.

       $call = $coder->decode($xml_string)
	   `"decode"' converts an XML string containing an RPC2 `"methodCall"' or `"methodResponse"' element into a hash containing three members,
	   `"type"', `"value"', and `"method_name"'.  `"type"' is one of `"call"', `"response"', or `"fault"'.	`"value"' is array containing the
	   parameters or result of the RPC.  For a `"call"' type, `"value"' contains call's parameters and `"method_name"' contains the method
	   being called.  For a `"response"' type, the `"value"' array contains call's result.	For a `"fault"' type, the `"value"' array contains
	   a hash with the two members `"faultCode"' and `"faultMessage"'.

       $response_xml = $coder->serve($request_xml, $methods)
	   `"serve"' decodes `$request_xml', looks up the called method name in the `$methods' hash and calls it, and then encodes and returns the
	   response as XML.

       $boolean_object = $coder->boolean($boolean);
       $date_time_object = $coder->date_time($date_time);
       $base64_object = $coder->base64($base64);
	   These methods create and return XML-RPC-specific datatypes that can be passed to the encoder.  The decoder may also return these
	   datatypes.  The corresponding package names (for use with `"ref()"', for example) are `"Frontier::RPC2::Boolean"', `"Fron-
	   tier::RPC2::DateTime::ISO8601"', and `"Frontier::RPC2::Base64"'.

	   You can change and retrieve the value of boolean, date/time, and base64 data using the `"value"' method of those objects, i.e.:

	     $boolean = $boolean_object->value;

	     $boolean_object->value(1);

       $int_object = $coder->int(42);
       $float_object = $coder->float(3.14159);
       $string_object = $coder->string("Foo");
	   By default, you may pass ordinary Perl values (scalars) to be encoded.  RPC2 automatically converts them to XML-RPC types if they look
	   like an integer, float, or as a string.  This assumption causes problems when you want to pass a string that looks like "0096", RPC2
	   will convert that to an <i4> because it looks like an integer.  With these methods, you could now create a string object like this:

	     $part_num = $coder->string("0096");

	   and be confident that it will be passed as an XML-RPC string.  You can change and retrieve values from objects using value() as
	   described above.

SEE ALSO

       perl(1), Frontier::Daemon(3), Frontier::Client(3)

       <http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/xml/code/rpc.html>

AUTHOR

       Ken MacLeod <ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us>

perl v5.8.0							    2003-01-27							 Frontier::RPC2(3)