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).

require_once 'XML/RPC2/Client.php';

Second, you make an assocative arrays of options to tune XML_RPC2 (prefix, proxy, manual backend choice...).

$options = array( 'prefix' => 'package.' );

Third, you make a XML_RPC2_Client object with the server URL and the with the options array.

$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.

$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 :

try { $result = $client->info('XML_RPC2'); print_r($result); } catch (XML_RPC2_FaultException $e) { // The XMLRPC server returns a XMLRPC error die('Exception #' . $result->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 :

Making the XML_RPC2_Client object

It's really easy to make the XML_RPC2_Client object. Use the following syntax :

// $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 :

// 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 carefull, 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 :

$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" ?>