Web Services

Introduction

XML-RPC is a Remote Procedure Calling protocol that works over the Internet. XML-RPC can be used with Java, C, C++, PHP and many other programming languages. XML-RPC protocol was created in 1998 by Dave Winer.

Actually Extensible Markup Language (XML) provides a vocabulary for describing Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) which is transmitted between computers using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). XML-RPC allows two or more computers running different operating systems and programs and also that are written in different languages to share and process. For example, a Java application could written in a Perl program, which in turn can be written in Python application and so on. XML-RPC works by sending a HTTP request to a server.

Example of an xml request

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodResponse>
  <params>
    <param>
        <value><string>South Delhi India </string></value>
    </param>
  </params>
</methodResponse>

Example of an xml response

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodCall>
  <methodName>examples.getCountryName</methodName>
  <params>
    <param>
        <value><int>30</int></value>
    </param>
  </params>
</methodCall>

XML-RPC Tag Format

Advantage Of XML-RPC

XML-RPC has various advantages.Some of the advantages are given below:-

1. Can call remote procedures on a machine with different operating system.
2. XML-RPC can be used with Java, PHP, C, C++, and many other programming languages.
3. XML-RPC not only call remote procedures but allows two or more computers running different operating systems and programs written in different languages to share processing.
4. Web services allow the reuse of services and components within an infrastructure.