Java and XML, Second Edition

Saying Hello

You are probably interested in seeing if XML-RPC might be the right solution for some of your development problems. To elaborate on XML-RPC, we’ll now look at building some actual working Java code using XML-RPC. In the great tradition of programming, I’ll start with a simple “Hello World” type program. I’ll show you how to define an XML-RPC server, and have that server register a handler. This handler takes in a Java String parameter and the user’s name, and returns “Hello” and the user’s name; for example, the method might return “Hello Shirley” when invoked. Then you’ll need to make this handler available for XML-RPC clients. Finally, I’ll demonstrate building a simple client to connect to the server and request the method invocation.

In a practical case, the XML-RPC server and handler would be on one machine, probably a heavy-duty server, and the client on another machine, invoking the procedure calls remotely. However, if you don’t have multiple machines available, you can still use the examples locally. Although this will be much faster than an actual client and server, you can still see how the pieces fit together and get a taste of XML-RPC.

XML-RPC Libraries

A lot of work has already gone into RPC, and more recently XML-RPC. Like using SAX, DOM, and JDOM for XML handling, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when there are good, even exceptional, Java packages in existence for your desired purpose. The center for information about XML-RPC and links to libraries ...