MAKE_METHOD(1p) User Contributed Perl Documentation MAKE_METHOD(1p)
NAME
make_method - Turn Perl code into an XML description for RPC::XML::Server
SYNOPSIS
make_method --name=system.identification --helptext='System ID string'
--signature=string --code=ident.pl --output=ident.xpl
make_method --base=methods/identification
DESCRIPTION
This is a simple tool to create the XML descriptive files for specifying methods to be published by an RPC::XML::Server-based server.
If a server is written such that the methods it exports (or publishes) are a part of the running code, then there is no need for this tool.
However, in cases where the server may be separate and distinct from the code (such as an Apache-based RPC server), specifying the routines
and filling in the supporting information can be cumbersome.
One solution that the RPC::XML::Server package offers is the means to load publishable code from an external file. The file is in a simple
XML dialect that clearly delinates the externally-visible name, the method signatures, the help text and the code itself. These files may
be created manually, or this tool may be used as an aide.
REQUIRED ARGUMENTS
There are no required arguments, but if there are not sufficient options passed you will be told by an error message.
OPTIONS
The tool recognizes the following options:
--help
Prints a short summary of the options.
--name=STRING
Specifies the published name of the method being encoded. This is the name by which it will be visible to clients of the server.
--namespace=STRING
Specifies a namespace that the code of the method will be evaluated in, when the XPL file is loaded by a server instance.
--type=STRING
Specify the type for the resulting file. "Type" here refers to whether the container tag used in the resulting XML will specify a
procedure or a method. The default is method. The string is treated case-independant, and only the first character ("m" or "p") is
actually regarded.
--version=STRING
Specify a version stamp for the code routine.
--hidden
If this is passe, the resulting file will include a tag that tells the server daemon to not make the routine visible through any
introspection interfaces.
--signature=STRING [ --signature=STRING ... ]
Specify one or more signatures for the method. Signatures should be the type names as laid out in the documentation in RPC::XML, with
the elements separated by a colon. You may also separate them with spaces, if you quote the argument. This option may be specified more
than once, as some methods may have several signatures.
--helptext=STRING
Specify the help text for the method as a simple string on the command line. Not suited for terribly long help strings.
--helpfile=FILE
Read the help text for the method from the file specified.
--code=FILE
Read the actual code for the routine from the file specified. If this option is not given, the code is read from the standard input
file descriptor.
--output=FILE
Write the resulting XML representation to the specified file. If this option is not given, then the output goes to the standard output
file descriptor.
--base=NAME
This is a special, "all-in-one" option. If passed, all other options are ignored.
The value is used as the base element for reading information from a file named BASE.base. This file will contain specification of the
name, version, hidden status, signatures and other method information. Each line of the file should look like one of the following:
Name: STRING
Specify the name of the routine being published. If this line does not appear, then the value of the --base argument with all
directory elements removed will be used.
Version: STRING
Provide a version stamp for the function. If no line matching this pattern is present, no version tag will be written.
Hidden: STRING
If present, STRING should be either "yes" or "no" (case not important). If it is "yes", then the method is marked to be hidden
from any introspection API.
Signature: STRING
This line may appear more than once, and is treated cumulatively. Other options override previous values if they appear more than
once. The portion following the "Signature:" part is taken to be a published signature for the method, with elements separated by
whitespace. Each method must have at least one signature, so a lack of any will cause an error.
Helpfile: STRING
Specifies the file from which to read the help text. It is not an error if no help text is specified.
Codefile: STRING
Specifies the file from which to read the code. Code is assumed to be Perl, and will be tagged as such in the resulting file.
Codefile[lang]: string
Specifies the file from which to read code, while also identifying the language that the code is in. This allows for the creation
of a XPL file that includes multiple language implementations of the given method or procedure.
Any other lines than the above patterns are ignored.
If no code has been read, then the tool will exit with an error message.
The output is written to BASE.xpl, preserving the path information so that the resulting file is right alongside the source files. This
allows constructs such as:
make_method --base=methods/introspection
FILE FORMAT AND DTD
The file format for these published routines is a very simple XML dialect. This is less due to XML being an ideal format than it is the
availability of the parser, given that the RPC::XML::Server class will already have the parser code in core. Writing a completely new
format would not have gained anything.
The Document Type Declaration for the format can be summarized by:
<!ELEMENT proceduredef (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
signature+, help?, code)>
<!ELEMENT methoddef (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
signature+, help?, code)>
<!ELEMENT functiondef (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
signature+, help?, code)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT namespace (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT version (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT hidden EMPTY>
<!ELEMENT signature (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT help (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT code (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST code language (#PCDATA)>
The file "rpc-method.dtd" that comes with the distribution has some commentary in addition to the actual specification.
A file is (for now) limited to one definition. This is started by the one of the opening tags "<methoddef>", "<functiondef>" or
"<proceduredef>". This is followed by exactly one "<name>" container specifying the method name, an optional version stamp, an optional
hide-from-introspection flag, one or more "<signature>" containers specifying signatures, an optional "<help>" container with the help
text, then the "<code>" container with the actual program code. All text should use entity encoding for the symbols:
& C<&> (ampersand)
E<lt> C<<> (less-than)
E<gt> C<>> (greater-than)
The parsing process within the server class will decode the entities. To make things easier, the tool scans all text elements and encodes
the above entities before writing the file.
The Specification of Code
This is not "Programming 101", nor is it "Perl for the Somewhat Dim". The code that is passed in via one of the "*.xpl" files gets passed
to "eval" with next to no modification (see below). Thus, badly-written or malicious code can very well wreak havoc on your server. This is
not the fault of the server code. The price of the flexibility this system offers is the responsibility on the part of the developer to
ensure that the code is tested and safe.
Code itself is treated as verbatim as possible. Some edits may occur on the server-side, as it make the code suitable for creating an
anonymous subroutine from. The make_method tool will attempt to use a "CDATA" section to embed the code within the XML document, so that
there is no need to encode entities or such. This allows for the resulting *.xpl files to be syntax-testable with "perl -cx". You can aid
this by ensuring that the code does not contain either of the two following character sequences:
]]>
__DATA__
The first is the "CDATA" terminator. If it occurs naturally in the code, it would trigger the end-of-section in the parser. The second is
the familiar Perl token, which is inserted so that the remainder of the XML document does not clutter up the Perl parser.
EXAMPLES
The RPC::XML distribution comes with a number of default methods in a subdirectory called (cryptically enough) "methods". Each of these is
expressed as a set of ("*.base", "*.code", "*.help") files. The Makefile.PL file configures the resulting Makefile such that these are used
to create "*.xpl" files using this tool, and then install them.
DIAGNOSTICS
Most problems come out in the form of error messages followed by an abrupt exit.
EXIT STATUS
The tool exits with a status of 0 upon success, and 255 otherwise.
CAVEATS
I don't much like this approach to specifying the methods, but I liked my other ideas even less.
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-rpc-xml at rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=RPC-XML <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=RPC-XML>. I will be notified, and
then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
SUPPORT
o RT: CPAN's request tracker
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=RPC-XML <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=RPC-XML>
o AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
http://annocpan.org/dist/RPC-XML <http://annocpan.org/dist/RPC-XML>
o CPAN Ratings
http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/RPC-XML <http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/RPC-XML>
o Search CPAN
http://search.cpan.org/dist/RPC-XML <http://search.cpan.org/dist/RPC-XML>
o Source code on GitHub
http://github.com/rjray/rpc-xml <http://github.com/rjray/rpc-xml>
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
This module and the code within are released under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0
(http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license-2.0.php). This code may be redistributed under either the Artistic License or the GNU
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.php).
SEE ALSO
RPC::XML, RPC::XML::Server
CREDITS
The XML-RPC standard is Copyright (c) 1998-2001, UserLand Software, Inc. See <http://www.xmlrpc.com> for more information about the XML-
RPC specification.
AUTHOR
Randy J. Ray <rjray@blackperl.com>
perl v5.14.2 2011-08-15 MAKE_METHOD(1p)