Client Side
Introduction about the XML_RPC2 client side usage
Thanks to PHP5, it's really easy to do XMLRPC client requests with XML_RPC2. The usage is really straightforward.
First, you include 'XML/RPC2/Client.php' file (only this one).
<?php
require_once 'XML/RPC2/Client.php';
?>
Second, you make an assocative arrays of options to tune XML_RPC2 (prefix, proxy, manual backend choice...).
<?php
$options = array(
'prefix' => 'package.'
);
?>
Third, you make a XML_RPC2_Client object with the server URL and the with the options array.
<?php
$client = XML_RPC2_Client::create('http://pear.php.net/xmlrpc.php', $options);
?>
Then, you send your request by calling the server method as it was a local method of the $client object.
<?php
$result = $client->info('XML_RPC2');
?>
This single line will encode a XMLRPC client request for the package.info() (prefix + method name) method with a single argument (the string 'XML_RPC2'), will send the request over HTTP to the server and will decode the response into PHP native types. With a single line !
Of course, to catch server errors, you have to add a few lines around you client call like for example :
<?php
try {
$result = $client->info('XML_RPC2');
print_r($result);
} catch (XML_RPC2_FaultException $e) {
// The XMLRPC server returns a XMLRPC error
die('Exception #' . $e->getFaultCode() . ' : ' . $e->getFaultString());
} catch (Exception $e) {
// Other errors (HTTP or networking problems...)
die('Exception : ' . $e->getMessage());
}
?>
The options array
This array is completely optional but really usefull. The following keys are available :
| Option | Data Type | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| prefix | string | '' | Prefix added before XMLRPC called method name |
| proxy | string | '' | Proxy used for the HTTP request (default : no proxy) |
| debug | boolean | FALSE | Debug mode ? |
| encoding | string | '' | Encoding of the request 'utf-8', 'iso-8859-1' (for now, only these two ones are officialy supported) |
| uglyStructHack | boolean | TRUE | ugly hack to circumvent a XMLRPCEXT bug/feature , see this PHP bug for more details. The only (reasonable) counterpart of this hack is that you can't use structs with a key beginning with the string 'xml_rpc2_ugly_struct_hack_' as arguments of the called method. |
Making the XML_RPC2_Client object
It's really easy to make the XML_RPC2_Client object. Use the following syntax :
<?php
// $XMLRPCServerURL is a string : 'http://pear.php.net/xmlrpc.php' (for example)
// $options is an optional array : see previous section for more informations
$client = XML_RPC2_Client::create($XMLRPCServerURL, $options);
?>
Don't try to call the XML_RPC2_Client constructor directly, use the call() static method.
Call the XMLRPC exported method
When the XML_RPC2_Client object is created, you can directly call the remote method as it was local. For example :
<?php
// We call the remote foo() method without any arguments
$result1 = $client->foo();
// We call the remote bar() method with two arguments (an integer : 123, a string : 'foo')
$result2 = $client->bar(123, 'foo');
// We call the remote foobar() method with complex data types (2 integer, a string, a structure)
$result3 = $client->foobar(1, 2, 'foo', array('foo' => 1, 'bar' => 2));
?>
Be careful, XMLRPC spec allows some remote method names with some special characters like "." or "/"... which are not available as PHP method names. To deal with them, you have to fix a prefix in a the options array. For example :
<?php
$options = array('prefix' => 'foo.');
$client = XML_RPC2_Client::create('http://...', $options);
// We call the foo.bar() method because of the prefix 'foo.' fixed in $options array
$result = $client->bar();
?>
In most cases, XML_RPC2 transforms automatically PHP native types into XMLRPC types (as described in the SPEC) for the request. In most cases too, XML_RPC2 transforms the XML server response into PHP native types too. Yet, there are two exceptions : 'dateTime.iso8601' and 'base64' which doesn't really exist in PHP.
To manipulate explicitely these two types, you have to use special objects. Let's see a complete example :
<?php
// Classic usage
require_once 'XML/RPC2/Client.php';
// To manipulate these types, we need to include this file too
require_once 'XML/RPC2/Value.php';
// To get a 'dateTime.iso8601' object, you have first to set a string with an iso8601 encoded date :
$tmp = "20060116T19:14:03";
// Then, you call this static method to get your 'dateTime.iso8601' object
$time = XML_RPC2_Value::createFromNative($tmp, 'datetime');
// For 'base64', you call the same static method with your string to get a 'base64' object
$base64 = XML_RPC2_Value::createFromNative('foobar', 'base64');
// Then, you can use XML_RPC2_Client as usual :
$options = array('prefix' => 'validator1.');
$client = XML_RPC2_Client::create('http://phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/server.php', $options);
$result = $client->manyTypesTest(1, true, 'foo', 3.14159, $time, $base64);
// The remote validator1.manyTypesTest() method returns an array with the 6 given arguments
$result_datetime = $result[4]; // a 'dateTime.iso8601' object
$result_base64 = $result[5]; // a 'base64' object
// To transform these objects into PHP native types, you have to use public properties of
// these objects as follow :
var_dump($result_datetime->scalar); // will return string(17) "20060116T19:14:03"
var_dump($result_datetime->xmlrpc_type); // will return string(8) "datetime"
var_dump($result_datetime->timestamp); // will return int(1137435243)
var_dump($result_base64->scalar); // will return string(6) "foobar"
var_dump($result_base64->xmlrpc_type); // will return string(6) "base64"
?>