3 :keywords: xml, rpc, xmlrpc, webservices, http
10 XML-RPC is a format devised by link:$$http://www.userland.com/$$[Userland Software] for achieving
11 remote procedure call via XML using HTTP as the transport. XML-RPC has its
12 own web site, link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/$$[www.xmlrpc.com]
14 This collection of PHP classes provides a framework for writing
15 XML-RPC clients and servers in PHP.
17 Main goals of the project are ease of use, flexibility and
20 The original author is Edd Dumbill of link:$$http://usefulinc.com/$$[Useful Information Company]. As of the
21 1.0 stable release, the project was opened to wider involvement and moved
22 to link:$$http://phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/$$[SourceForge]; later, to link:$$https://github.com/gggeek/phpxmlrpc$$[Github]
24 A list of XML-RPC implementations for other languages such as Perl
25 and Python can be found on the link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/$$[www.xmlrpc.com] site.
65 Ernest MacDougal Campbell III
103 Przemyslaw Wroblewski
105 Bruno Zanetti Melotti
109 == System Requirements
111 The library has been designed with goals of scalability and backward
112 compatibility. As such, it supports a wide range of PHP installs. Note
113 that not all features of the lib are available in every
116 The __minimum supported__ PHP version is
119 If you wish to use HTTPS or HTTP 1.1 to communicate with remote
120 servers, you need the "curl" extension compiled into your PHP
123 The "xmlrpc" native extension is not required to be compiled into
124 your PHP installation, but if it is, there will be no interference with
125 the operation of this library.
129 == Files in the distribution
132 the XML-RPC classes. include() this in
133 your PHP files to use the classes.
136 the XML-RPC server class. include() this
137 in addition to xmlrpc.inc to get server functionality
139 lib/xmlrpc_wrappers.php::
140 helper functions to "automagically" convert plain php
141 functions to xmlrpc services and vice versa
143 demo/server/proxy.php::
144 a sample server implementing xmlrpc proxy
147 demo/server/server.php::
148 a sample server hosting various demo functions, as well as a
149 full suite of functions used for interoperability testing. It is
150 used by testsuite.php (see below) for unit testing the library, and
151 is not to be copied literally into your production servers
153 demo/client/client.php, demo/client/agesort.php,
154 demo/client/which.php::
155 client code to exercise some of the functions in server.php,
156 including the interopEchoTests.whichToolkit
159 demo/client/wrap.php::
160 client code to illustrate 'wrapping' of remote methods into
163 demo/client/introspect.php::
164 client code to illustrate usage of introspection capabilities
165 offered by server.php.
167 demo/client/mail.php::
168 client code to illustrate usage of an xmlrpc-to-email gateway
169 using Dave Winer's XML-RPC server at userland.com.
171 demo/client/zopetest.php::
172 example client code that queries an xmlrpc server built in
176 examples of how to construct xmlrpcval types
178 demo/demo1.xml, demo/demo2.xml, demo/demo3.xml::
179 XML-RPC responses captured in a file for testing purposes (you
180 can use these to test the
181 xmlrpcmsg->parseResponse() method).
183 demo/server/discuss.php,
184 demo/client/comment.php::
185 Software used in the PHP chapter of <<jellyfish>> to provide a comment server and allow the
186 attachment of comments to stories from Meerkat's data store.
188 test/testsuite.php, test/parse_args.php::
189 A unit test suite for this software package. If you do
190 development on this software, please consider submitting tests for
194 A (very limited) benchmarking suite for this software package.
195 If you do development on this software, please consider submitting
196 benchmarks for this suite.
198 test/phpunit.php, test/PHPUnit/*.php::
199 An (incomplete) version PEAR's unit test framework for PHP.
200 The complete package can be found at link:$$http://pear.php.net/package/PHPUnit$$[http://pear.php.net/package/PHPUnit]
202 test/verify_compat.php::
203 Script designed to help the user to verify the level of
204 compatibility of the library with the current php install
206 extras/test.pl, extras/test.py::
207 Perl and Python programs to exercise server.php to test that
208 some of the methods work.
210 extras/workspace.testPhpServer.fttb::
211 Frontier scripts to exercise the demo server. Thanks to Dave
212 Winer for permission to include these. See link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/discuss/msgReader$853$$[Dave's announcement of these.]
215 A test certificate key for the SSL support, which can be used
216 to generate dummy certificates. It has the passphrase "test."
221 == Known bugs and limitations
223 This started out as a bare framework. Many "nice" bits haven't been
224 put in yet. Specifically, very little type validation or coercion has been
225 put in. PHP being a loosely-typed language, this is going to have to be
226 done explicitly (in other words: you can call a lot of library functions
227 passing them arguments of the wrong type and receive an error message only
228 much further down the code, where it will be difficult to
231 dateTime.iso8601 is supported opaquely. It can't be done natively as
232 the XML-RPC specification explicitly forbids passing of timezone
233 specifiers in ISO8601 format dates. You can, however, use the <<iso8601encode>> and <<iso8601decode>> functions
234 to do the encoding and decoding for you.
236 Very little HTTP response checking is performed (e.g. HTTP redirects
237 are not followed and the Content-Length HTTP header, mandated by the
238 xml-rpc spec, is not validated); cookie support still involves quite a bit
239 of coding on the part of the user.
241 If a specific character set encoding other than US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1
242 or UTF-8 is received in the HTTP header or XML prologue of xml-rpc request
243 or response messages then it will be ignored for the moment, and the
244 content will be parsed as if it had been encoded using the charset defined
245 by <<xmlrpc-defencoding>>
247 Support for receiving from servers version 1 cookies (i.e.
248 conforming to RFC 2965) is quite incomplete, and might cause unforeseen
259 XML-RPC for PHP is offered "as-is" without any warranty or
260 commitment to support. However, informal advice and help is available
261 via the XML-RPC for PHP website and mailing list and from
264 * The __XML-RPC for PHP__ development is hosted
265 on link:$$https://github.com/gggeek/phpxmlrpc$$[github.com/gggeek/phpxmlrpc].
266 Bugs, feature requests and patches can be posted to the link:$$https://github.com/gggeek/phpxmlrpc/issues$$[project's website].
268 * The __PHP XML-RPC interest mailing list__ is
269 run by the author. More details link:$$http://lists.gnomehack.com/mailman/listinfo/phpxmlrpc$$[can be found here].
271 * For more general XML-RPC questions, there is a Yahoo! Groups
272 link:$$http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xml-rpc/$$[XML-RPC mailing list].
274 * The link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/discuss$$[XML-RPC.com] discussion
275 group is a useful place to get help with using XML-RPC. This group
276 is also gatewayed into the Yahoo! Groups mailing list.
280 === The Jellyfish Book
282 image::progxmlrpc.s.gif[The Jellyfish Book]
283 Together with Simon St.Laurent and Joe
284 Johnston, Edd Dumbill wrote a book on XML-RPC for O'Reilly and
285 Associates on XML-RPC. It features a rather fetching jellyfish on the
288 Complete details of the book are link:$$http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progxmlrpc/$$[available from O'Reilly's web site.]
290 Edd is responsible for the chapter on PHP, which includes a worked
291 example of creating a forum server, and hooking it up the O'Reilly's
292 link:$$http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/$$[Meerkat] service in
293 order to allow commenting on news stories from around the Web.
295 If you've benefited from the effort that has been put into writing
296 this software, then please consider buying the book!
301 == Class documentation
307 This is where a lot of the hard work gets done. This class enables
308 the creation and encapsulation of values for XML-RPC.
310 Ensure you've read the XML-RPC spec at link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/stories/storyReader$7$$[http://www.xmlrpc.com/stories/storyReader$7]
311 before reading on as it will make things clearer.
313 The xmlrpcval class can store arbitrarily
314 complicated values using the following types: ++i4 int boolean string double dateTime.iso8601 base64 array struct++
315 ++null++. You should refer to the link:$$http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec$$[spec] for more information on
316 what each of these types mean.
322 The type i4 is accepted as a synonym
323 for int when creating xmlrpcval objects. The
324 xml parsing code will always convert i4 to
326 by this implementation as the canonical name for this type.
330 Base 64 encoding is performed transparently to the caller when
331 using this type. Decoding is also transparent. Therefore you ought
332 to consider it as a "binary" data type, for use when you want to
333 pass data that is not 7-bit clean.
337 The php values ++true++ and
338 ++1++ map to ++true++. All other
339 values (including the empty string) are converted to
344 Characters <, >, ', ", &, are encoded using their
345 entity reference as &lt; &gt; &apos; &quot; and
346 &amp; All other characters outside of the ASCII range are
347 encoded using their character reference representation (e.g.
348 &#200 for é). The XML-RPC spec recommends only encoding
349 ++< &++ but this implementation goes further,
350 for reasons explained by link:$$http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#syntax$$[the XML 1.0 recommendation]. In particular, using character reference
351 representation has the advantage of producing XML that is valid
352 independently of the charset encoding assumed.
356 There is no support for encoding ++null++
357 values in the XML-RPC spec, but at least a couple of extensions (and
358 many toolkits) do support it. Before using ++null++
359 values in your messages, make sure that the responding party accepts
360 them, and uses the same encoding convention (see ...).
362 [[xmlrpcval-creation]]
366 The constructor is the normal way to create an
367 xmlrpcval. The constructor can take these
371 xmlrpcval xmlrpcvalnew
372 xmlrpcval string $stringVal xmlrpcvalnew
373 xmlrpcval mixed $scalarVal string$scalartyp xmlrpcvalnew
374 xmlrpcval array $arrayVal string $arraytyp The first constructor creates an empty value, which must be
375 altered using the methods addScalar,
376 addArray or addStruct before
379 The second constructor creates a simple string value.
381 The third constructor is used to create a scalar value. The
382 second parameter must be a name of an XML-RPC type. Valid types are:
383 "++int++", "++boolean++",
384 "++string++", "++double++",
385 "++dateTime.iso8601++", "++base64++" or
393 $myInt = new xmlrpcval(1267, "int");
394 $myString = new xmlrpcval("Hello, World!", "string");
395 $myBool = new xmlrpcval(1, "boolean");
396 $myString2 = new xmlrpcval(1.24, "string"); // note: this will serialize a php float value as xmlrpc string
400 The fourth constructor form can be used to compose complex
401 XML-RPC values. The first argument is either a simple array in the
402 case of an XML-RPC array or an associative
403 array in the case of a struct. The elements of
404 the array __must be xmlrpcval objects themselves__.
406 The second parameter must be either "++array++"
414 $myArray = new xmlrpcval(
416 new xmlrpcval("Tom"),
417 new xmlrpcval("Dick"),
418 new xmlrpcval("Harry")
423 $myStruct = new xmlrpcval(
425 "name" => new xmlrpcval("Tom", "string"),
426 "age" => new xmlrpcval(34, "int"),
427 "address" => new xmlrpcval(
429 "street" => new xmlrpcval("Fifht Ave", "string"),
430 "city" => new xmlrpcval("NY", "string")
438 See the file ++vardemo.php++ in this distribution
441 [[xmlrpcval-methods]]
447 int addScalarstring$stringValintaddScalarmixed$scalarValstring$scalartypIf $val is an empty
448 xmlrpcval this method makes it a scalar
449 value, and sets that value.
451 If $val is already a scalar value, then
452 no more scalars can be added and ++0++ is
455 If $val is an xmlrpcval of type array,
456 the php value $scalarval is added as its last
459 If all went OK, ++1++ is returned, otherwise
464 intaddArrayarray$arrayValThe argument is a simple (numerically indexed) array. The
465 elements of the array __must be xmlrpcval objects themselves__.
467 Turns an empty xmlrpcval into an
468 array with contents as specified by
471 If $val is an xmlrpcval of type array,
472 the elements of $arrayVal are appended to the
475 See the fourth constructor form for more information.
477 If all went OK, ++1++ is returned, otherwise
482 int addStructarray$assocArrayValThe argument is an associative array. The elements of the
483 array __must be xmlrpcval objects themselves__.
485 Turns an empty xmlrpcval into a
486 struct with contents as specified by
489 If $val is an xmlrpcval of type struct,
490 the elements of $arrayVal are merged with the
493 See the fourth constructor form for more information.
495 If all went OK, ++1++ is returned, otherwise
500 string kindOf Returns a string containing "struct", "array" or "scalar"
501 describing the base type of the value. If it returns "undef" it
502 means that the value hasn't been initialised.
506 string serialize Returns a string containing the XML-RPC representation of this
512 mixed scalarVal If $val->kindOf() == "scalar", this
513 method returns the actual PHP-language value of the scalar (base 64
514 decoding is automatically handled here).
518 string scalarTyp If $val->kindOf() == "scalar", this
519 method returns a string denoting the type of the scalar. As
520 mentioned before, ++i4++ is always coerced to
525 xmlrpcval arrayMem int $n If $val->kindOf() == "array", returns
526 the $nth element in the array represented by
527 the value $val. The value returned is an
533 // iterating over values of an array object
534 for ($i = 0; $i < $val->arraySize(); $i++)
536 $v = $val->arrayMem($i);
537 echo "Element $i of the array is of type ".$v->kindOf();
544 int arraySize If $val is an
545 array, returns the number of elements in that
550 xmlrpcval structMem string $memberName If $val->kindOf() == "struct", returns
551 the element called $memberName from the
552 struct represented by the value $val. The
553 value returned is an xmlrpcval object.
557 array structEach Returns the next (key, value) pair from the struct, when
559 $value is an xmlrpcval itself. See also <<structreset>>.
564 // iterating over all values of a struct object
566 while (list($key, $v) = $val->structEach())
568 echo "Element $key of the struct is of type ".$v->kindOf();
577 void structReset Resets the internal pointer for
578 structEach() to the beginning of the struct,
579 where $val is a struct.
583 ===== structMemExists
585 bool structMemExsists string $memberName Returns TRUE or
586 FALSE depending on whether a member of the
587 given name exists in the struct.
593 This class provides a representation for a request to an XML-RPC
594 server. A client sends an xmlrpcmsg to a server,
595 and receives back an xmlrpcresp (see <<xmlrpc-client-send>>).
599 The constructor takes the following forms:
602 xmlrpcmsgstring$methodNamearray$parameterArraynullWhere methodName is a string indicating
603 the name of the method you wish to invoke, and
604 parameterArray is a simple php
606 objects. Here's an example message to the __US state name__ server:
611 $msg = new xmlrpcmsg("examples.getStateName", array(new xmlrpcval(23, "int")));
615 This example requests the name of state number 23. For more
616 information on xmlrpcval objects, see <<xmlrpcval>>.
618 Note that the parameterArray parameter is
619 optional and can be omitted for methods that take no input parameters
620 or if you plan to add parameters one by one.
627 bool addParam xmlrpcval $xmlrpcVal Adds the xmlrpcval
628 xmlrpcVal to the parameter list for this
629 method call. Returns TRUE or FALSE on error.
633 int getNumParams Returns the number of parameters attached to this
638 xmlrpcval getParam int $n Gets the nth parameter in the message
639 (with the index zero-based). Use this method in server
640 implementations to retrieve the values sent by the client.
644 string method string method string $methNameGets or sets the method contained in the XML-RPC
649 xmlrpcresp parseResponsestring $xmlString Given an incoming XML-RPC server response contained in the
650 string $xmlString, this method constructs an
651 xmlrpcresp response object and returns it,
652 setting error codes as appropriate (see <<xmlrpc-client-send>>).
654 This method processes any HTTP/MIME headers it finds.
656 ===== parseResponseFile
658 xmlrpcresp parseResponseFile file handle
659 resource$fileHandleGiven an incoming XML-RPC server response on the open file
660 handle fileHandle, this method reads all the
661 data it finds and passes it to
664 This method is useful to construct responses from pre-prepared
665 files (see files ++demo1.xml, demo2.xml, demo3.xml++
666 in this distribution). It processes any HTTP headers it finds, and
667 does not close the file handle.
672 serializeReturns the an XML string representing the XML-RPC
679 This is the basic class used to represent a client of an XML-RPC
684 The constructor accepts one of two possible syntaxes:
687 xmlrpc_clientstring$server_urlxmlrpc_clientnew
688 xmlrpc_clientstring$server_pathstring$server_hostnameint$server_port80string$transport'http'Here are a couple of usage examples of the first form:
694 $client = new xmlrpc_client("http://phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/server.php");
695 $another_client = new xmlrpc_client("https://james:bond@secret.service.com:443/xmlrpcserver?agent=007");
699 The second syntax does not allow to express a username and
700 password to be used for basic HTTP authorization as in the second
701 example above, but instead it allows to choose whether xmlrpc calls
702 will be made using the HTTP 1.0 or 1.1 protocol.
704 Here's another example client set up to query Userland's XML-RPC
705 server at __betty.userland.com__:
710 $client = new xmlrpc_client("/RPC2", "betty.userland.com", 80);
714 The server_port parameter is optional,
715 and if omitted will default to 80 when using HTTP and 443 when using
716 HTTPS (see the <<xmlrpc-client-send>> method
719 The transport parameter is optional, and
720 if omitted will default to 'http'. Allowed values are either
722 'http11'. Its value can be overridden with every call
723 to the send method. See the
724 send method below for more details about the
725 meaning of the different values.
730 This class supports the following methods.
732 [[xmlrpc-client-send]]
736 This method takes the forms:
738 xmlrpcresp send xmlrpcmsg $xmlrpc_message int $timeout string $transport array sendarray $xmlrpc_messages int $timeout string $transportxmlrpcrespsendstring$xml_payloadint$timeoutstring$transportWhere xmlrpc_message is an instance of
739 xmlrpcmsg (see <<xmlrpcmsg>>),
740 and response is an instance of
741 xmlrpcresp (see <<xmlrpcresp>>).
743 If xmlrpc_messages is an array of
744 message instances, ++responses++ will be an array of
745 response instances. The client will try to make use of a single
746 ++system.multicall++ xml-rpc method call to forward to the
747 server all the messages in a single HTTP round trip, unless
748 ++$$$client->no_multicall$$++ has been previously set to
749 ++TRUE++ (see the multicall method below), in which case
750 many consecutive xmlrpc requests will be sent.
752 The third syntax allows to build by hand (or any other means)
753 a complete xmlrpc request message, and send it to the server.
754 xml_payload should be a string containing the
755 complete xml representation of the request. It is e.g. useful when,
756 for maximal speed of execution, the request is serialized into a
757 string using the native php xmlrpc functions (see link:$$http://www.php.net/xmlrpc$$[the php manual on xmlrpc]).
759 The timeout is optional, and will be
760 set to ++0++ (wait for platform-specific predefined
761 timeout) if omitted. This timeout value is passed to
762 fsockopen(). It is also used for detecting
763 server timeouts during communication (i.e. if the server does not
764 send anything to the client for timeout
765 seconds, the connection will be closed).
767 The transport parameter is optional,
768 and if omitted will default to the transport set using instance
769 creator or 'http' if omitted. The only other valid values are
770 'https', which will use an SSL HTTP connection to connect to the
771 remote server, and 'http11'. Note that your PHP must have the "curl"
772 extension compiled in order to use both these features. Note that
773 when using SSL you should normally set your port number to 443,
774 unless the SSL server you are contacting runs at any other
777 In addition to low-level errors, the XML-RPC server you were
778 querying may return an error in the
779 xmlrpcresp object. See <<xmlrpcresp>> for details of how to handle these
786 This method takes the form:
788 array multiCall array $messages int $timeout string $transport bool $fallback This method is used to boxcar many method calls in a single
789 xml-rpc request. It will try first to make use of the
790 ++system.multicall++ xml-rpc method call, and fall back to
791 executing many separate requests if the server returns any
795 xmlrpcmsg objects (see <<xmlrpcmsg>>), and response is an
796 array of xmlrpcresp objects (see <<xmlrpcresp>>).
799 transport parameters are optional, and behave
800 as in the send method above.
802 The fallback parameter is optional, and
803 defaults to TRUE. When set to
804 FALSE it will prevent the client to try using
805 many single method calls in case of failure of the first multicall
806 request. It should be set only when the server is known to support
807 the multicall extension.
809 ===== setAcceptedCompression
811 void setAcceptedCompression string $compressionmethod This method defines whether the client will accept compressed
812 xml payload forming the bodies of the xmlrpc responses received from
813 servers. Note that enabling reception of compressed responses merely
814 adds some standard http headers to xmlrpc requests. It is up to the
815 xmlrpc server to return compressed responses when receiving such
816 requests. Allowed values for
817 compressionmethod are: 'gzip', 'deflate',
818 'any' or null (with any meaning either gzip or deflate).
820 This requires the "zlib" extension to be enabled in your php
821 install. If it is, by default xmlrpc_client
822 instances will enable reception of compressed content.
824 ===== setCaCertificate
826 voidsetCaCertificatestring$certificatebool$is_dirThis method sets an optional certificate to be used in
827 SSL-enabled communication to validate a remote server with (when the
828 server_method is set to 'https' in the
829 client's construction or in the send method and
830 SetSSLVerifypeer has been set to
833 The certificate parameter must be the
834 filename of a PEM formatted certificate, or a directory containing
835 multiple certificate files. The is_dir
836 parameter defaults to FALSE, set it to
838 certificate indicates a directory instead of
841 This requires the "curl" extension to be compiled into your
842 installation of PHP. For more details see the man page for the
843 curl_setopt function.
848 voidsetCertificatestring$certificatestring$passphraseThis method sets the optional certificate and passphrase used
849 in SSL-enabled communication with a remote server (when the
850 server_method is set to 'https' in the
851 client's construction or in the send method).
853 The certificate parameter must be the
854 filename of a PEM formatted certificate. The
855 passphrase parameter must contain the
856 password required to use the certificate.
858 This requires the "curl" extension to be compiled into your
859 installation of PHP. For more details see the man page for the
860 curl_setopt function.
862 Note: to retrieve information about the client certificate on
863 the server side, you will need to look into the environment
864 variables which are set up by the webserver. Different webservers
865 will typically set up different variables.
869 void setCookiestring $name string $value string $path string $domain int $portThis method sets a cookie that will be sent to the xmlrpc
870 server along with every further request (useful e.g. for keeping
871 session info outside of the xml-rpc payload).
873 $value is optional, and defaults to
876 $path, $domain and $port are optional,
877 and will be omitted from the cookie header if unspecified. Note that
878 setting any of these values will turn the cookie into a 'version 1'
879 cookie, that might not be fully supported by the server (see RFC2965
884 voidsetCredentialsstring$usernamestring$passwordint$authtypeThis method sets the username and password for authorizing the
885 client to a server. With the default (HTTP) transport, this
886 information is used for HTTP Basic authorization. Note that username
887 and password can also be set using the class constructor. With HTTP
888 1.1 and HTTPS transport, NTLM and Digest authentication protocols
889 are also supported. To enable them use the constants
891 CURLAUTH_NTLM as values for the authtype
897 voidsetCurlOptionsarray$optionsThis method allows to directly set any desired
898 option to manipulate the usage of the cURL client (when in cURL
899 mode). It can be used eg. to explicitly bind to an outgoing ip
900 address when the server is multihomed
905 void setDebugint$debugLvldebugLvl is either ++0, 1++ or 2 depending on whether you require the client to
906 print debugging information to the browser. The default is not to
907 output this information (0).
909 The debugging information at level 1includes the raw data
910 returned from the XML-RPC server it was querying (including bot HTTP
911 headers and the full XML payload), and the PHP value the client
912 attempts to create to represent the value returned by the server. At
913 level2, the complete payload of the xmlrpc request is also printed,
914 before being sent t the server.
916 This option can be very useful when debugging servers as it
917 allows you to see exactly what the client sends and the server
923 voidsetKeyint$keyint$keypassThis method sets the optional certificate key and passphrase
924 used in SSL-enabled communication with a remote server (when the
925 transport is set to 'https' in the client's
926 construction or in the send method).
928 This requires the "curl" extension to be compiled into your
929 installation of PHP. For more details see the man page for the
930 curl_setopt function.
935 voidsetProxystring$proxyhostint$proxyportstring$proxyusernamestring$proxypasswordint$authtypeThis method enables calling servers via an HTTP proxy. The
937 proxypassword and authtype
938 parameters are optional. Authtype defaults to
939 CURLAUTH_BASIC (Basic authentication protocol);
940 the only other valid value is the constant
941 CURLAUTH_NTLM, and has effect only when the
942 client uses the HTTP 1.1 protocol.
944 NB: CURL versions before 7.11.10 cannot use a proxy to
945 communicate with https servers.
948 ===== setRequestCompression
950 voidsetRequestCompressionstring$compressionmethodThis method defines whether the xml payload forming the
951 request body will be sent to the server in compressed format, as per
952 the HTTP specification. This is particularly useful for large
953 request parameters and over slow network connections. Allowed values
954 for compressionmethod are: 'gzip', 'deflate',
955 'any' or null (with any meaning either gzip or deflate). Note that
956 there is no automatic fallback mechanism in place for errors due to
957 servers not supporting receiving compressed request bodies, so make
958 sure that the particular server you are querying does accept
959 compressed requests before turning it on.
961 This requires the "zlib" extension to be enabled in your php
965 ===== setSSLVerifyHost
967 voidsetSSLVerifyHostint$iThis method defines whether connections made to XML-RPC
968 backends via HTTPS should verify the remote host's SSL certificate's
969 common name (CN). By default, only the existence of a CN is checked.
971 integer value; 0 to not check the CN at all, 1 to merely check for
972 its existence, and 2 to check that the CN on the certificate matches
973 the hostname that is being connected to.
976 ===== setSSLVerifyPeer
978 voidsetSSLVerifyPeerbool$iThis method defines whether connections made to XML-RPC
979 backends via HTTPS should verify the remote host's SSL certificate,
980 and cause the connection to fail if the cert verification fails.
981 $i should be a boolean
982 value. Default value: TRUE. To specify custom
983 SSL certificates to validate the server with, use the
984 setCaCertificate method.
989 voidUseragentstring$useragentThis method sets a custom user-agent that will be
990 used by the client in the http headers sent with the request. The
991 default value is built using the library name and version
997 NB: direct manipulation of these variables is only recommended
1003 This member variable determines whether the multicall() method
1004 will try to take advantage of the system.multicall xmlrpc method to
1005 dispatch to the server an array of requests in a single http
1006 roundtrip or simply execute many consecutive http calls. Defaults to
1007 FALSE, but it will be enabled automatically on the first failure of
1008 execution of system.multicall.
1011 ===== request_charset_encoding
1013 This is the charset encoding that will be used for serializing
1014 request sent by the client.
1016 If defaults to NULL, which means using US-ASCII and encoding
1017 all characters outside of the ASCII range using their xml character
1018 entity representation (this has the benefit that line end characters
1019 will not be mangled in the transfer, a CR-LF will be preserved as
1020 well as a singe LF).
1022 Valid values are 'US-ASCII', 'UTF-8' and 'ISO-8859-1'
1028 This member variable determines whether the value returned
1029 inside an xmlrpcresp object as results of calls to the send() and
1030 multicall() methods will be an xmlrpcval object, a plain php value
1031 or a raw xml string. Allowed values are 'xmlrpcvals' (the default),
1032 'phpvals' and 'xml'. To allow the user to differentiate between a
1033 correct and a faulty response, fault responses will be returned as
1034 xmlrpcresp objects in any case. Note that the 'phpvals' setting will
1035 yield faster execution times, but some of the information from the
1036 original response will be lost. It will be e.g. impossible to tell
1037 whether a particular php string value was sent by the server as an
1038 xmlrpc string or base64 value.
1046 $client = new xmlrpc_client("phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/server.php");
1047 $client->return_type = 'phpvals';
1048 $message = new xmlrpcmsg("examples.getStateName", array(new xmlrpcval(23, "int")));
1049 $resp = $client->send($message);
1050 if ($resp->faultCode()) echo 'KO. Error: '.$resp->faultString(); else echo 'OK: got '.$resp->value();
1054 For more details about usage of the 'xml' value, see Appendix
1061 This class is used to contain responses to XML-RPC requests. A
1062 server method handler will construct an
1063 xmlrpcresp and pass it as a return value. This
1064 same value will be returned by the result of an invocation of the
1066 xmlrpc_client class.
1072 xmlrpcrespxmlrpcval$xmlrpcvalxmlrpcrespnew
1073 xmlrpcresp0int$errcodestring$err_stringThe first syntax is used when execution has happened without
1074 difficulty: $xmlrpcval is an
1075 xmlrpcval value with the result of the method
1076 execution contained in it. Alternatively it can be a string containing
1077 the xml serialization of the single xml-rpc value result of method
1080 The second type of constructor is used in case of failure.
1081 errcode and err_string
1082 are used to provide indication of what has gone wrong. See <<xmlrpc-server>> for more information on passing error
1091 intfaultCodeReturns the integer fault code return from the XML-RPC
1092 response. A zero value indicates success, any other value indicates
1098 stringfaultStringReturns the human readable explanation of the fault indicated
1099 by $resp->faultCode().
1104 xmlrpcvalvalueReturns an xmlrpcval object containing
1105 the return value sent by the server. If the response's
1106 faultCode is non-zero then the value returned
1107 by this method should not be used (it may not even be an
1110 Note: if the xmlrpcresp instance in question has been created
1111 by an xmlrpc_client object whose
1112 return_type was set to 'phpvals', then a plain
1113 php value will be returned instead of an
1114 xmlrpcval object. If the
1115 return_type was set to 'xml', an xml string will
1116 be returned (see the return_type member var above for more
1122 stringserializeReturns an XML string representation of the response (xml
1123 prologue not included).
1129 The implementation of this class has been kept as simple to use as
1130 possible. The constructor for the server basically does all the work.
1131 Here's a minimal example:
1137 function foo ($xmlrpcmsg) {
1139 return new xmlrpcresp($some_xmlrpc_val);
1143 function foobar($xmlrpcmsg) {
1145 return new xmlrpcresp($some_xmlrpc_val);
1149 $s = new xmlrpc_server(
1151 "examples.myFunc1" => array("function" => "foo"),
1152 "examples.myFunc2" => array("function" => "bar::foobar"),
1157 This performs everything you need to do with a server. The single
1158 constructor argument is an associative array from xmlrpc method names to
1159 php function names. The incoming request is parsed and dispatched to the
1160 relevant php function, which is responsible for returning a
1161 xmlrpcresp object, that will be serialized back
1165 ==== Method handler functions
1167 Both php functions and class methods can be registered as xmlrpc
1170 The synopsis of a method handler function is:
1172 xmlrpcresp $resp = function (xmlrpcmsg $msg)
1174 No text should be echoed 'to screen' by the handler function, or
1175 it will break the xml response sent back to the client. This applies
1176 also to error and warning messages that PHP prints to screen unless
1177 the appropriate parameters have been set in the php.in file. Another
1178 way to prevent echoing of errors inside the response and facilitate
1179 debugging is to use the server SetDebug method with debug level 3 (see
1180 ...). Exceptions thrown duting execution of handler functions are
1181 caught by default and a XML-RPC error reponse is generated instead.
1182 This behaviour can be finetuned by usage of the
1183 exception_handling member variable (see
1186 Note that if you implement a method with a name prefixed by
1187 ++system.++ the handler function will be invoked by the
1188 server with two parameters, the first being the server itself and the
1189 second being the xmlrpcmsg object.
1191 The same php function can be registered as handler of multiple
1194 Here is a more detailed example of what the handler function
1201 function foo ($xmlrpcmsg) {
1202 global $xmlrpcerruser; // import user errcode base value
1204 $meth = $xmlrpcmsg->method(); // retrieve method name
1205 $par = $xmlrpcmsg->getParam(0); // retrieve value of first parameter - assumes at least one param received
1206 $val = $par->scalarval(); // decode value of first parameter - assumes it is a scalar value
1211 // this is an error condition
1212 return new xmlrpcresp(0, $xmlrpcerruser+1, // user error 1
1213 "There's a problem, Captain");
1215 // this is a successful value being returned
1216 return new xmlrpcresp(new xmlrpcval("All's fine!", "string"));
1222 See __server.php__ in this distribution for
1223 more examples of how to do this.
1225 Since release 2.0RC3 there is a new, even simpler way of
1226 registering php functions with the server. See section 5.7
1230 ==== The dispatch map
1232 The first argument to the xmlrpc_server
1233 constructor is an array, called the __dispatch map__.
1234 In this array is the information the server needs to service the
1235 XML-RPC methods you define.
1237 The dispatch map takes the form of an associative array of
1238 associative arrays: the outer array has one entry for each method, the
1239 key being the method name. The corresponding value is another
1240 associative array, which can have the following members:
1243 * ++function++ - this
1244 entry is mandatory. It must be either a name of a function in the
1245 global scope which services the XML-RPC method, or an array
1246 containing an instance of an object and a static method name (for
1247 static class methods the 'class::method' syntax is also
1251 * ++signature++ - this
1252 entry is an array containing the possible signatures (see <<signatures>>) for the method. If this entry is present
1253 then the server will check that the correct number and type of
1254 parameters have been sent for this method before dispatching
1258 * ++docstring++ - this
1259 entry is a string containing documentation for the method. The
1260 documentation may contain HTML markup.
1263 * ++$$signature_docs$$++ - this entry can be used
1264 to provide documentation for the single parameters. It must match
1265 in structure the 'signature' member. By default, only the
1266 documenting_xmlrpc_server class in the
1267 extras package will take advantage of this, since the
1268 "system.methodHelp" protocol does not support documenting method
1269 parameters individually.
1272 * ++$$parameters_type$$++ - this entry can be used
1273 when the server is working in 'xmlrpcvals' mode (see ...) to
1274 define one or more entries in the dispatch map as being functions
1275 that follow the 'phpvals' calling convention. The only useful
1276 value is currently the string ++phpvals++.
1278 Look at the __server.php__ example in the
1279 distribution to see what a dispatch map looks like.
1283 ==== Method signatures
1285 A signature is a description of a method's return type and its
1286 parameter types. A method may have more than one signature.
1288 Within a server's dispatch map, each method has an array of
1289 possible signatures. Each signature is an array of types. The first
1290 entry is the return type. For instance, the method
1293 string examples.getStateName(int)
1300 array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt)
1304 and, assuming that it is the only possible signature for the
1305 method, it might be used like this in server creation:
1309 $findstate_sig = array(array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt));
1311 $findstate_doc = 'When passed an integer between 1 and 51 returns the
1312 name of a US state, where the integer is the index of that state name
1313 in an alphabetic order.';
1315 $s = new xmlrpc_server( array(
1316 "examples.getStateName" => array(
1317 "function" => "findstate",
1318 "signature" => $findstate_sig,
1319 "docstring" => $findstate_doc
1326 Note that method signatures do not allow to check nested
1327 parameters, e.g. the number, names and types of the members of a
1328 struct param cannot be validated.
1330 If a method that you want to expose has a definite number of
1331 parameters, but each of those parameters could reasonably be of
1332 multiple types, the array of acceptable signatures will easily grow
1333 into a combinatorial explosion. To avoid such a situation, the lib
1334 defines the global var $xmlrpcValue, which can be
1335 used in method signatures as a placeholder for 'any xmlrpc
1342 $echoback_sig = array(array($xmlrpcValue, $xmlrpcValue));
1344 $findstate_doc = 'Echoes back to the client the received value, regardless of its type';
1346 $s = new xmlrpc_server( array(
1347 "echoBack" => array(
1348 "function" => "echoback",
1349 "signature" => $echoback_sig, // this sig guarantees that the method handler will be called with one and only one parameter
1350 "docstring" => $echoback_doc
1355 Methods system.listMethods,
1357 system.methodSignature and
1358 system.multicall are already defined by the
1359 server, and should not be reimplemented (see Reserved Methods
1363 ==== Delaying the server response
1365 You may want to construct the server, but for some reason not
1366 fulfill the request immediately (security verification, for instance).
1367 If you omit to pass to the constructor the dispatch map or pass it a
1368 second argument of ++0++ this will have the desired
1369 effect. You can then use the service() method of
1370 the server class to service the request. For example:
1376 $s = new xmlrpc_server($myDispMap, 0); // second parameter = 0 prevents automatic servicing of request
1378 // ... some code that does other stuff here
1384 Note that the service method will print
1385 the complete result payload to screen and send appropriate HTTP
1386 headers back to the client, but also return the response object. This
1387 permits further manipulation of the response, possibly in combination
1388 with output buffering.
1390 To prevent the server from sending HTTP headers back to the
1391 client, you can pass a second parameter with a value of
1392 ++TRUE++ to the service
1393 method. In this case, the response payload will be returned instead of
1394 the response object.
1396 Xmlrpc requests retrieved by other means than HTTP POST bodies
1397 can also be processed. For example:
1403 $s = new xmlrpc_server(); // not passing a dispatch map prevents automatic servicing of request
1405 // ... some code that does other stuff here, including setting dispatch map into server object
1407 $resp = $s->service($xmlrpc_request_body, true); // parse a variable instead of POST body, retrieve response payload
1409 // ... some code that does other stuff with xml response $resp here
1414 ==== Modifying the server behaviour
1416 A couple of methods / class variables are available to modify
1417 the behaviour of the server. The only way to take advantage of their
1418 existence is by usage of a delayed server response (see above)
1423 This function controls weather the server is going to echo
1424 debugging messages back to the client as comments in response body.
1425 Valid values: 0,1,2,3, with 1 being the default. At level 0, no
1426 debug info is returned to the client. At level 2, the complete
1427 client request is added to the response, as part of the xml
1428 comments. At level 3, a new PHP error handler is set when executing
1429 user functions exposed as server methods, and all non-fatal errors
1430 are trapped and added as comments into the response.
1433 ===== allow_system_funcs
1435 Default_value: TRUE. When set to FALSE, disables support for
1436 System.xxx functions in the server. It
1437 might be useful e.g. if you do not wish the server to respond to
1438 requests to System.ListMethods.
1441 ===== compress_response
1443 When set to TRUE, enables the server to take advantage of HTTP
1444 compression, otherwise disables it. Responses will be transparently
1445 compressed, but only when an xmlrpc-client declares its support for
1446 compression in the HTTP headers of the request.
1448 Note that the ZLIB php extension must be installed for this to
1449 work. If it is, compress_response will default to
1453 ===== exception_handling
1455 This variable controls the behaviour of the server when an
1456 exception is thrown by a method handler php function. Valid values:
1457 0,1,2, with 0 being the default. At level 0, the server catches the
1458 exception and return an 'internal error' xmlrpc response; at 1 it
1459 catches the exceptions and return an xmlrpc response with the error
1460 code and error message corresponding to the exception that was
1461 thron; at 2 = the exception is floated to the upper layers in the
1465 ===== response_charset_encoding
1467 Charset encoding to be used for response (only affects string
1470 If it can, the server will convert the generated response from
1471 internal_encoding to the intended one.
1473 Valid values are: a supported xml encoding (only UTF-8 and
1474 ISO-8859-1 at present, unless mbstring is enabled), null (leave
1475 charset unspecified in response and convert output stream to
1476 US_ASCII), 'default' (use xmlrpc library default as specified in
1477 xmlrpc.inc, convert output stream if needed), or 'auto' (use
1478 client-specified charset encoding or same as request if request
1479 headers do not specify it (unless request is US-ASCII: then use
1480 library default anyway).
1483 ==== Fault reporting
1485 Fault codes for your servers should start at the value indicated
1486 by the global ++$xmlrpcerruser++ + 1.
1488 Standard errors returned by the server include:
1490 ++1++ Unknown method:: Returned if the server was asked to dispatch a method it
1493 ++2++ Invalid return payload:: This error is actually generated by the client, not
1494 server, code, but signifies that a server returned something it
1495 couldn't understand. A more detailed error report is sometimes
1496 added onto the end of the phrase above.
1498 ++3++ Incorrect parameters:: This error is generated when the server has signature(s)
1499 defined for a method, and the parameters passed by the client do
1500 not match any of signatures.
1502 ++4++ Can't introspect: method unknown:: This error is generated by the builtin
1503 system.* methods when any kind of
1504 introspection is attempted on a method undefined by the
1507 ++5++ Didn't receive 200 OK from remote server:: This error is generated by the client when a remote server
1508 doesn't return HTTP/1.1 200 OK in response to a request. A more
1509 detailed error report is added onto the end of the phrase
1512 ++6++ No data received from server:: This error is generated by the client when a remote server
1513 returns HTTP/1.1 200 OK in response to a request, but no
1514 response body follows the HTTP headers.
1516 ++7++ No SSL support compiled in:: This error is generated by the client when trying to send
1517 a request with HTTPS and the CURL extension is not available to
1520 ++8++ CURL error:: This error is generated by the client when trying to send
1521 a request with HTTPS and the HTTPS communication fails.
1523 ++9-14++ multicall errors:: These errors are generated by the server when something
1524 fails inside a system.multicall request.
1526 ++100-++ XML parse errors:: Returns 100 plus the XML parser error code for the fault
1527 that occurred. The faultString returned
1528 explains where the parse error was in the incoming XML
1532 ==== 'New style' servers
1534 In the same spirit of simplification that inspired the
1535 xmlrpc_client::return_type class variable, a new
1536 class variable has been added to the server class:
1537 functions_parameters_type. When set to 'phpvals',
1538 the functions registered in the server dispatch map will be called
1539 with plain php values as parameters, instead of a single xmlrpcmsg
1540 instance parameter. The return value of those functions is expected to
1541 be a plain php value, too. An example is worth a thousand
1546 function foo($usr_id, $out_lang='en') {
1547 global $xmlrpcerruser;
1551 if ($someErrorCondition)
1552 return new xmlrpcresp(0, $xmlrpcerruser+1, 'DOH!');
1557 'picture' => new xmlrpcval(file_get_contents($picOfTheGuy), 'base64')
1561 $s = new xmlrpc_server(
1563 "examples.myFunc" => array(
1564 "function" => "bar::foobar",
1565 "signature" => array(
1566 array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt),
1567 array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt, $xmlrpcString)
1571 $s->functions_parameters_type = 'phpvals';
1576 There are a few things to keep in mind when using this
1579 to return an xmlrpc error, the method handler function must
1580 return an instance of xmlrpcresp. The only
1581 other way for the server to know when an error response should be
1582 served to the client is to throw an exception and set the server's
1583 exception_handling memeber var to 1;
1585 to return a base64 value, the method handler function must
1586 encode it on its own, creating an instance of an xmlrpcval
1589 the method handler function cannot determine the name of the
1590 xmlrpc method it is serving, unlike standard handler functions that
1591 can retrieve it from the message object;
1593 when receiving nested parameters, the method handler function
1594 has no way to distinguish a php string that was sent as base64 value
1595 from one that was sent as a string value;
1597 this has a direct consequence on the support of
1598 system.multicall: a method whose signature contains datetime or base64
1599 values will not be available to multicall calls;
1601 last but not least, the direct parsing of xml to php values is
1602 much faster than using xmlrpcvals, and allows the library to handle
1603 much bigger messages without allocating all available server memory or
1604 smashing PHP recursive call stack.
1611 Many global variables are defined in the xmlrpc.inc file. Some of
1612 those are meant to be used as constants (and modifying their value might
1613 cause unpredictable behaviour), while some others can be modified in your
1614 php scripts to alter the behaviour of the xml-rpc client and
1618 === "Constant" variables
1623 $xmlrpcerruser800The minimum value for errors reported by user
1624 implemented XML-RPC servers. Error numbers lower than that are
1625 reserved for library usage.
1628 ==== $xmlrpcI4, $xmlrpcInt, $xmlrpcBoolean, $xmlrpcDouble, $xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcDateTime, $xmlrpcBase64, $xmlrpcArray, $xmlrpcStruct, $xmlrpcValue, $xmlrpcNull
1630 For convenience the strings representing the XML-RPC types have
1631 been encoded as global variables:
1637 $xmlrpcBoolean="boolean";
1638 $xmlrpcDouble="double";
1639 $xmlrpcString="string";
1640 $xmlrpcDateTime="dateTime.iso8601";
1641 $xmlrpcBase64="base64";
1642 $xmlrpcArray="array";
1643 $xmlrpcStruct="struct";
1644 $xmlrpcValue="undefined";
1649 ==== $xmlrpcTypes, $xmlrpc_valid_parents, $xmlrpcerr, $xmlrpcstr, $xmlrpcerrxml, $xmlrpc_backslash, $_xh, $xml_iso88591_Entities, $xmlEntities, $xmlrpcs_capabilities
1651 Reserved for internal usage.
1654 === Variables whose value can be modified
1656 [[xmlrpc-defencoding]]
1658 ==== xmlrpc_defencoding
1660 $xmlrpc_defencoding"UTF8"This variable defines the character set encoding that will be
1661 used by the xml-rpc client and server to decode the received messages,
1662 when a specific charset declaration is not found (in the messages sent
1663 non-ascii chars are always encoded using character references, so that
1664 the produced xml is valid regardless of the charset encoding
1667 Allowed values: ++"UTF8"++,
1668 ++"ISO-8859-1"++, ++"ASCII".++
1670 Note that the appropriate RFC actually mandates that XML
1671 received over HTTP without indication of charset encoding be treated
1672 as US-ASCII, but many servers and clients 'in the wild' violate the
1673 standard, and assume the default encoding is UTF-8.
1676 ==== xmlrpc_internalencoding
1678 $xmlrpc_internalencoding"ISO-8859-1"This variable defines the character set encoding
1679 that the library uses to transparently encode into valid XML the
1680 xml-rpc values created by the user and to re-encode the received
1681 xml-rpc values when it passes them to the PHP application. It only
1682 affects xml-rpc values of string type. It is a separate value from
1683 xmlrpc_defencoding, allowing e.g. to send/receive xml messages encoded
1684 on-the-wire in US-ASCII and process them as UTF-8. It defaults to the
1685 character set used internally by PHP (unless you are running an
1686 MBString-enabled installation), so you should change it only in
1687 special situations, if e.g. the string values exchanged in the xml-rpc
1688 messages are directly inserted into / fetched from a database
1689 configured to return UTF8 encoded strings to PHP. Example
1697 include('xmlrpc.inc');
1698 $xmlrpc_internalencoding = 'UTF-8'; // this has to be set after the inclusion above
1699 $v = new xmlrpcval('κόÏ
\83με'); // This xmlrpc value will be correctly serialized as the greek word 'kosme'
1705 $xmlrpcName"XML-RPC for PHP"The string representation of the name of the XML-RPC
1706 for PHP library. It is used by the client for building the User-Agent
1707 HTTP header that is sent with every request to the server. You can
1708 change its value if you need to customize the User-Agent
1714 $xmlrpcVersion"2.2"The string representation of the version number of
1715 the XML-RPC for PHP library in use. It is used by the client for
1716 building the User-Agent HTTP header that is sent with every request to
1717 the server. You can change its value if you need to customize the
1721 ==== xmlrpc_null_extension
1723 When set to TRUE, the lib will enable
1724 support for the <NIL/> (and <EX:NIL/>) xmlrpc value, as
1725 per the extension to the standard proposed here. This means that
1726 <NIL/> and <EX:NIL/> tags received will be parsed as valid
1727 xmlrpc, and the corresponding xmlrpcvals will return "null" for
1731 ==== xmlrpc_null_apache_encoding
1733 When set to ++TRUE++, php NULL values encoded
1734 into xmlrpcval objects get serialized using the
1735 ++<EX:NIL/>++ tag instead of
1736 ++<NIL/>++. Please note that both forms are
1737 always accepted as input regardless of the value of this
1745 XML-RPC for PHP contains some helper functions which you can use to
1746 make processing of XML-RPC requests easier.
1751 The XML-RPC specification has this to say on dates:
1755 [[wrap_xmlrpc_method]]
1756 Don't assume a timezone. It should be
1757 specified by the server in its documentation what assumptions it makes
1762 Unfortunately, this means that date processing isn't
1763 straightforward. Although XML-RPC uses ISO 8601 format dates, it doesn't
1764 use the timezone specifier.
1766 We strongly recommend that in every case where you pass dates in
1767 XML-RPC calls, you use UTC (GMT) as your timezone. Most computer
1768 languages include routines for handling GMT times natively, and you
1769 won't have to translate between timezones.
1771 For more information about dates, see link:$$http://www.uic.edu/year2000/datefmt.html$$[ISO 8601: The Right Format for Dates], which has a handy link to a PDF of the ISO
1772 8601 specification. Note that XML-RPC uses exactly one of the available
1773 representations: CCYYMMDDTHH:MM:SS.
1779 stringiso8601_encodestring$time_tint$utc0Returns an ISO 8601 formatted date generated from the UNIX
1780 timestamp $time_t, as returned by the PHP
1783 The argument $utc can be omitted, in
1784 which case it defaults to ++0++. If it is set to
1785 ++1++, then the function corrects the time passed in
1786 for UTC. Example: if you're in the GMT-6:00 timezone and set
1787 $utc, you will receive a date representation
1788 six hours ahead of your local time.
1790 The included demo program __vardemo.php__
1791 includes a demonstration of this function.
1797 intiso8601_decodestring$isoStringint$utc0Returns a UNIX timestamp from an ISO 8601 encoded time and date
1798 string passed in. If $utc is
1799 ++1++ then $isoString is assumed
1800 to be in the UTC timezone, and thus the result is also UTC: otherwise,
1801 the timezone is assumed to be your local timezone and you receive a
1806 === Easy use with nested PHP values
1808 Dan Libby was kind enough to contribute two helper functions that
1809 make it easier to translate to and from PHP values. This makes it easier
1810 to deal with complex structures. At the moment support is limited to
1811 int, double, string,
1812 array, datetime and struct
1813 datatypes; note also that all PHP arrays are encoded as structs, except
1814 arrays whose keys are integer numbers starting with 0 and incremented by
1817 These functions reside in __xmlrpc.inc__.
1821 ==== php_xmlrpc_decode
1823 mixedphp_xmlrpc_decodexmlrpcval$xmlrpc_valarray$optionsarrayphp_xmlrpc_decodexmlrpcmsg$xmlrpcmsg_valstring$optionsReturns a native PHP value corresponding to the values found in
1824 the xmlrpcval $xmlrpc_val,
1825 translated into PHP types. Base-64 and datetime values are
1826 automatically decoded to strings.
1828 In the second form, returns an array containing the parameters
1830 xmlrpcmsg_val, decoded
1833 The options parameter is optional. If
1834 specified, it must consist of an array of options to be enabled in the
1835 decoding process. At the moment the only valid option are
1837 ++$$dates_as_objects$$++. When the first is set, php
1838 objects that have been converted to xml-rpc structs using the
1839 php_xmlrpc_encode function and a corresponding
1840 encoding option will be converted back into object values instead of
1841 arrays (provided that the class definition is available at
1842 reconstruction time). When the second is set, XML-RPC datetime values
1843 will be converted into native dateTime objects
1846 ____WARNING__:__ please take
1847 extreme care before enabling the decode_php_objs
1848 option: when php objects are rebuilt from the received xml, their
1849 constructor function will be silently invoked. This means that you are
1850 allowing the remote end to trigger execution of uncontrolled PHP code
1851 on your server, opening the door to code injection exploits. Only
1852 enable this option when you have complete trust of the remote
1859 // wrapper to expose an existing php function as xmlrpc method handler
1860 function foo_wrapper($m)
1862 $params = php_xmlrpc_decode($m);
1863 $retval = call_user_func_array('foo', $params);
1864 return new xmlrpcresp(new xmlrpcval($retval)); // foo return value will be serialized as string
1867 $s = new xmlrpc_server(array(
1868 "examples.myFunc1" => array(
1869 "function" => "foo_wrapper",
1877 ==== php_xmlrpc_encode
1879 xmlrpcvalphp_xmlrpc_encodemixed$phpvalarray$optionsReturns an xmlrpcval object populated with the PHP
1880 values in $phpval. Works recursively on arrays
1881 and objects, encoding numerically indexed php arrays into array-type
1882 xmlrpcval objects and non numerically indexed php arrays into
1883 struct-type xmlrpcval objects. Php objects are encoded into
1884 struct-type xmlrpcvals, excepted for php values that are already
1885 instances of the xmlrpcval class or descendants thereof, which will
1886 not be further encoded. Note that there's no support for encoding php
1887 values into base-64 values. Encoding of date-times is optionally
1888 carried on on php strings with the correct format.
1890 The options parameter is optional. If
1891 specified, it must consist of an array of options to be enabled in the
1892 encoding process. At the moment the only valid options are
1893 encode_php_objs, ++$$null_extension$$++
1896 The first will enable the creation of 'particular' xmlrpcval
1897 objects out of php objects, that add a "php_class" xml attribute to
1898 their serialized representation. This attribute allows the function
1899 php_xmlrpc_decode to rebuild the native php objects (provided that the
1900 same class definition exists on both sides of the communication). The
1901 second allows to encode php ++NULL++ values to the
1902 ++<NIL/>++ (or
1903 ++<EX:NIL/>++, see ...) tag. The last encodes any
1904 string that matches the ISO8601 format into an XML-RPC
1911 // the easy way to build a complex xml-rpc struct, showing nested base64 value and datetime values
1912 $val = php_xmlrpc_encode(array(
1913 'first struct_element: an int' => 666,
1914 'second: an array' => array ('apple', 'orange', 'banana'),
1915 'third: a base64 element' => new xmlrpcval('hello world', 'base64'),
1916 'fourth: a datetime' => '20060107T01:53:00'
1917 ), array('auto_dates'));
1921 ==== php_xmlrpc_decode_xml
1923 xmlrpcval | xmlrpcresp |
1924 xmlrpcmsgphp_xmlrpc_decode_xmlstring$xmlarray$optionsDecodes the xml representation of either an xmlrpc request,
1925 response or single value, returning the corresponding php-xmlrpc
1926 object, or ++FALSE++ in case of an error.
1928 The options parameter is optional. If
1929 specified, it must consist of an array of options to be enabled in the
1930 decoding process. At the moment, no option is supported.
1936 $text = '<value><array><data><value>Hello world</value></data></array></value>';
1937 $val = php_xmlrpc_decode_xml($text);
1938 if ($val) echo 'Found a value of type '.$val->kindOf(); else echo 'Found invalid xml';
1942 === Automatic conversion of php functions into xmlrpc methods (and vice versa)
1944 For the extremely lazy coder, helper functions have been added
1945 that allow to convert a php function into an xmlrpc method, and a
1946 remotely exposed xmlrpc method into a local php function - or a set of
1947 methods into a php class. Note that these comes with many caveat.
1950 ==== wrap_xmlrpc_method
1952 stringwrap_xmlrpc_method$client$methodname$extra_optionsstringwrap_xmlrpc_method$client$methodname$signum$timeout$protocol$funcnameGiven an xmlrpc server and a method name, creates a php wrapper
1953 function that will call the remote method and return results using
1954 native php types for both params and results. The generated php
1955 function will return an xmlrpcresp object for failed xmlrpc
1958 The second syntax is deprecated, and is listed here only for
1959 backward compatibility.
1961 The server must support the
1962 system.methodSignature xmlrpc method call for
1963 this function to work.
1965 The client param must be a valid
1966 xmlrpc_client object, previously created with the address of the
1967 target xmlrpc server, and to which the preferred communication options
1970 The optional parameters can be passed as array key,value pairs
1971 in the extra_options param.
1973 The signum optional param has the purpose
1974 of indicating which method signature to use, if the given server
1975 method has multiple signatures (defaults to 0).
1978 protocol optional params are the same as in the
1979 xmlrpc_client::send() method.
1981 If set, the optional new_function_name
1982 parameter indicates which name should be used for the generated
1983 function. In case it is not set the function name will be
1986 If the ++$$return_source$$++ optional parameter is
1987 set, the function will return the php source code to build the wrapper
1988 function, instead of evaluating it (useful to save the code and use it
1989 later as stand-alone xmlrpc client).
1991 If the ++$$encode_php_objs$$++ optional parameter is
1992 set, instances of php objects later passed as parameters to the newly
1993 created function will receive a 'special' treatment that allows the
1994 server to rebuild them as php objects instead of simple arrays. Note
1995 that this entails using a "slightly augmented" version of the xmlrpc
1996 protocol (ie. using element attributes), which might not be understood
1997 by xmlrpc servers implemented using other libraries.
1999 If the ++$$decode_php_objs$$++ optional parameter is
2000 set, instances of php objects that have been appropriately encoded by
2001 the server using a coordinate option will be deserialized as php
2002 objects instead of simple arrays (the same class definition should be
2003 present server side and client side).
2005 __Note that this might pose a security risk__,
2006 since in order to rebuild the object instances their constructor
2007 method has to be invoked, and this means that the remote server can
2008 trigger execution of unforeseen php code on the client: not really a
2009 code injection, but almost. Please enable this option only when you
2010 trust the remote server.
2012 In case of an error during generation of the wrapper function,
2013 FALSE is returned, otherwise the name (or source code) of the new
2016 Known limitations: server must support
2017 system.methodsignature for the wanted xmlrpc
2018 method; for methods that expose multiple signatures, only one can be
2019 picked; for remote calls with nested xmlrpc params, the caller of the
2020 generated php function has to encode on its own the params passed to
2021 the php function if these are structs or arrays whose (sub)members
2022 include values of type base64.
2024 Note: calling the generated php function 'might' be slow: a new
2025 xmlrpc client is created on every invocation and an xmlrpc-connection
2026 opened+closed. An extra 'debug' param is appended to the parameter
2027 list of the generated php function, useful for debugging
2036 $c = new xmlrpc_client('http://phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/server.php');
2038 $function = wrap_xmlrpc_method($client, 'examples.getStateName');
2041 die('Cannot introspect remote method');
2044 $statename = $function($a);
2045 if (is_a($statename, 'xmlrpcresp')) // call failed
2047 echo 'Call failed: '.$statename->faultCode().'. Calling again with debug on';
2048 $function($a, true);
2051 echo "OK, state nr. $stateno is $statename";
2056 [[wrap_php_function]]
2058 ==== wrap_php_function
2060 arraywrap_php_functionstring$funcnamestring$wrapper_function_namearray$extra_optionsGiven a user-defined PHP function, create a PHP 'wrapper'
2061 function that can be exposed as xmlrpc method from an xmlrpc_server
2062 object and called from remote clients, and return the appropriate
2063 definition to be added to a server's dispatch map.
2065 The optional $wrapper_function_name
2066 specifies the name that will be used for the auto-generated
2069 Since php is a typeless language, to infer types of input and
2070 output parameters, it relies on parsing the javadoc-style comment
2071 block associated with the given function. Usage of xmlrpc native types
2072 (such as datetime.dateTime.iso8601 and base64) in the docblock @param
2073 tag is also allowed, if you need the php function to receive/send data
2074 in that particular format (note that base64 encoding/decoding is
2075 transparently carried out by the lib, while datetime vals are passed
2078 Known limitations: only works for
2079 user-defined functions, not for PHP internal functions (reflection
2080 does not support retrieving number/type of params for those); the
2081 wrapped php function will not be able to programmatically return an
2082 xmlrpc error response.
2084 If the ++$$return_source$$++ optional parameter is
2085 set, the function will return the php source code to build the wrapper
2086 function, instead of evaluating it (useful to save the code and use it
2087 later in a stand-alone xmlrpc server). It will be in the stored in the
2088 ++source++ member of the returned array.
2090 If the ++$$suppress_warnings$$++ optional parameter
2091 is set, any runtime warning generated while processing the
2092 user-defined php function will be catched and not be printed in the
2093 generated xml response.
2095 If the extra_options array contains the
2096 ++$$encode_php_objs$$++ value, wrapped functions returning
2097 php objects will generate "special" xmlrpc responses: when the xmlrpc
2098 decoding of those responses is carried out by this same lib, using the
2099 appropriate param in php_xmlrpc_decode(), the objects will be
2102 In short: php objects can be serialized, too (except for their
2103 resource members), using this function. Other libs might choke on the
2104 very same xml that will be generated in this case (i.e. it has a
2105 nonstandard attribute on struct element tags)
2107 If the ++$$decode_php_objs$$++ optional parameter is
2108 set, instances of php objects that have been appropriately encoded by
2109 the client using a coordinate option will be deserialized and passed
2110 to the user function as php objects instead of simple arrays (the same
2111 class definition should be present server side and client
2114 __Note that this might pose a security risk__,
2115 since in order to rebuild the object instances their constructor
2116 method has to be invoked, and this means that the remote client can
2117 trigger execution of unforeseen php code on the server: not really a
2118 code injection, but almost. Please enable this option only when you
2119 trust the remote clients.
2127 * State name from state number decoder. NB: do NOT remove this comment block.
2128 * @param integer $stateno the state number
2129 * @return string the name of the state (or error description)
2131 function findstate($stateno)
2134 if (isset($stateNames[$stateno-1]))
2136 return $stateNames[$stateno-1];
2140 return "I don't have a state for the index '" . $stateno . "'";
2144 // wrap php function, build xmlrpc server
2146 $findstate_sig = wrap_php_function('findstate');
2148 $methods['examples.getStateName'] = $findstate_sig;
2149 $srv = new xmlrpc_server($methods);
2155 === Functions removed from the library
2157 The following two functions have been deprecated in version 1.1 of
2158 the library, and removed in version 2, in order to avoid conflicts with
2159 the EPI xml-rpc library, which also defines two functions with the same
2162 To ease the transition to the new naming scheme and avoid breaking
2163 existing implementations, the following scheme has been adopted:
2165 * If EPI-XMLRPC is not active in the current PHP installation,
2166 the constant ++$$XMLRPC_EPI_ENABLED$$++ will be set to
2170 * If EPI-XMLRPC is active in the current PHP installation, the
2171 constant ++$$XMLRPC_EPI_ENABLED$$++ will be set to
2176 The following documentation is kept for historical
2183 mixedx mlrpc_decode xmlrpcval $xmlrpc_val Alias for php_xmlrpc_decode.
2189 xmlrpcval xmlrpc_encode mixed $phpvalAlias for php_xmlrpc_encode.
2195 ==== xmlrpc_debugmsg
2197 void xmlrpc_debugmsgstring$debugstringSends the contents of $debugstring in XML
2198 comments in the server return payload. If a PHP client has debugging
2199 turned on, the user will be able to see server debug
2202 Use this function in your methods so you can pass back
2203 diagnostic information. It is only available from
2211 In order to extend the functionality offered by XML-RPC servers
2212 without impacting on the protocol, reserved methods are supported in this
2215 All methods starting with system. are
2216 considered reserved by the server. PHP for XML-RPC itself provides four
2217 special methods, detailed in this chapter.
2219 Note that all server objects will automatically respond to clients
2220 querying these methods, unless the property
2221 allow_system_funcs has been set to
2222 false before calling the
2223 service() method. This might pose a security risk
2224 if the server is exposed to public access, e.g. on the internet.
2227 === system.getCapabilities
2230 === system.listMethods
2232 This method may be used to enumerate the methods implemented by
2235 The system.listMethods method requires no
2236 parameters. It returns an array of strings, each of which is the name of
2237 a method implemented by the server.
2241 === system.methodSignature
2243 This method takes one parameter, the name of a method implemented
2244 by the XML-RPC server.
2246 It returns an array of possible signatures for this method. A
2247 signature is an array of types. The first of these types is the return
2248 type of the method, the rest are parameters.
2250 Multiple signatures (i.e. overloading) are permitted: this is the
2251 reason that an array of signatures are returned by this method.
2253 Signatures themselves are restricted to the top level parameters
2254 expected by a method. For instance if a method expects one array of
2255 structs as a parameter, and it returns a string, its signature is simply
2256 "string, array". If it expects three integers, its signature is "string,
2259 For parameters that can be of more than one type, the "undefined"
2260 string is supported.
2262 If no signature is defined for the method, a not-array value is
2263 returned. Therefore this is the way to test for a non-signature, if
2264 $resp below is the response object from a method
2265 call to system.methodSignature:
2270 $v = $resp->value();
2271 if ($v->kindOf() != "array") {
2272 // then the method did not have a signature defined
2277 See the __introspect.php__ demo included in this
2278 distribution for an example of using this method.
2282 === system.methodHelp
2284 This method takes one parameter, the name of a method implemented
2285 by the XML-RPC server.
2287 It returns a documentation string describing the use of that
2288 method. If no such string is available, an empty string is
2291 The documentation string may contain HTML markup.
2293 === system.multicall
2295 This method takes one parameter, an array of 'request' struct
2296 types. Each request struct must contain a
2297 methodName member of type string and a
2298 params member of type array, and corresponds to
2299 the invocation of the corresponding method.
2301 It returns a response of type array, with each value of the array
2302 being either an error struct (containing the faultCode and faultString
2303 members) or the successful response value of the corresponding single
2311 The best examples are to be found in the sample files included with
2312 the distribution. Some are included here.
2316 === XML-RPC client: state name query
2318 Code to get the corresponding state name from a number (1-50) from
2319 the demo server available on SourceForge
2324 $m = new xmlrpcmsg('examples.getStateName',
2325 array(new xmlrpcval($HTTP_POST_VARS["stateno"], "int")));
2326 $c = new xmlrpc_client("/server.php", "phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net", 80);
2328 if (!$r->faultCode()) {
2330 print "State number " . htmlentities($HTTP_POST_VARS["stateno"]) . " is " .
2331 htmlentities($v->scalarval()) . "<BR>";
2332 print "<HR>I got this value back<BR><PRE>" .
2333 htmlentities($r->serialize()) . "</PRE><HR>\n";
2336 print "Code: " . htmlentities($r->faultCode()) . "<BR>" .
2337 "Reason: '" . htmlentities($r->faultString()) . "'<BR>";
2342 === Executing a multicall call
2350 == Frequently Asked Questions
2354 ==== How to send custom XML as payload of a method call::
2356 Unfortunately, at the time the XML-RPC spec was designed, support
2357 for namespaces in XML was not as ubiquitous as it is now. As a
2358 consequence, no support was provided in the protocol for embedding XML
2359 elements from other namespaces into an xmlrpc request.
2361 To send an XML "chunk" as payload of a method call or response,
2362 two options are available: either send the complete XML block as a
2363 string xmlrpc value, or as a base64 value. Since the '<' character in
2364 string values is encoded as '&lt;' in the xml payload of the method
2365 call, the XML string will not break the surrounding xmlrpc, unless
2366 characters outside of the assumed character set are used. The second
2367 method has the added benefits of working independently of the charset
2368 encoding used for the xml to be transmitted, and preserving exactly
2369 whitespace, whilst incurring in some extra message length and cpu load
2370 (for carrying out the base64 encoding/decoding).
2373 ==== Is there any limitation on the size of the requests / responses that can be successfully sent?::
2375 Yes. But I have no hard figure to give; it most likely will depend
2376 on the version of PHP in usage and its configuration.
2378 Keep in mind that this library is not optimized for speed nor for
2379 memory usage. Better alternatives exist when there are strict
2380 requirements on throughput or resource usage, such as the php native
2381 xmlrpc extension (see the PHP manual for more information).
2383 Keep in mind also that HTTP is probably not the best choice in
2384 such a situation, and XML is a deadly enemy. CSV formatted data over
2385 socket would be much more efficient.
2387 If you really need to move a massive amount of data around, and
2388 you are crazy enough to do it using phpxmlrpc, your best bet is to
2389 bypass usage of the xmlrpcval objects, at least in the decoding phase,
2390 and have the server (or client) object return to the calling function
2391 directly php values (see xmlrpc_client::return_type
2392 and xmlrpc_server::functions_parameters_type for more
2396 ==== My server (client) returns an error whenever the client (server) returns accented characters
2401 ==== How to enable long-lasting method calls
2406 ==== My client returns "XML-RPC Fault #2: Invalid return payload: enable debugging to examine incoming payload": what should I do?
2408 The response you are seeing is a default error response that the
2409 client object returns to the php application when the server did not
2410 respond to the call with a valid xmlrpc response.
2412 The most likely cause is that you are not using the correct URL
2413 when creating the client object, or you do not have appropriate access
2414 rights to the web page you are requesting, or some other common http
2417 To find out what the server is really returning to your client,
2418 you have to enable the debug mode of the client, using
2419 $client->setdebug(1);
2422 ==== How can I save to a file the xml of the xmlrpc responses received from servers?
2424 If what you need is to save the responses received from the server
2425 as xml, you have two options:
2427 1- use the serialize() method on the response object.
2433 $resp = $client->send($msg);
2434 if (!$resp->faultCode())
2435 $data_to_be_saved = $resp->serialize();
2439 Note that this will not be 100% accurate, since the xml generated
2440 by the response object can be different from the xml received,
2441 especially if there is some character set conversion involved, or such
2442 (eg. if you receive an empty string tag as <string/>, serialize()
2443 will output <string></string>), or if the server sent back
2444 as response something invalid (in which case the xml generated client
2445 side using serialize() will correspond to the error response generated
2446 internally by the lib).
2448 2 - set the client object to return the raw xml received instead
2449 of the decoded objects:
2455 $client = new xmlrpc_client($url);
2456 $client->return_type = 'xml';
2457 $resp = $client->send($msg);
2458 if (!$resp->faultCode())
2459 $data_to_be_saved = $resp->value();
2463 Note that using this method the xml response response will not be
2464 parsed at all by the library, only the http communication protocol will
2465 be checked. This means that xmlrpc responses sent by the server that
2466 would have generated an error response on the client (eg. malformed xml,
2467 responses that have faultcode set, etc...) now will not be flagged as
2468 invalid, and you might end up saving not valid xml but random
2472 ==== Can I use the ms windows character set?
2474 If the data your application is using comes from a Microsoft
2475 application, there are some chances that the character set used to
2476 encode it is CP1252 (the same might apply to data received from an
2477 external xmlrpc server/client, but it is quite rare to find xmlrpc
2478 toolkits that encode to CP1252 instead of UTF8). It is a character set
2479 which is "almost" compatible with ISO 8859-1, but for a few extra
2482 PHP-XMLRPC only supports the ISO 8859-1 and UTF8 character sets.
2483 The net result of this situation is that those extra characters will not
2484 be properly encoded, and will be received at the other end of the
2485 XML-RPC transmission as "garbled data". Unfortunately the library cannot
2486 provide real support for CP1252 because of limitations in the PHP 4 xml
2487 parser. Luckily, we tried our best to support this character set anyway,
2488 and, since version 2.2.1, there is some form of support, left commented
2491 To properly encode outgoing data that is natively in CP1252, you
2492 will have to uncomment all relative code in the file
2493 __xmlrpc.inc__ (you can search for the string "1252"),
2494 then set ++$$$GLOBALS['xmlrpc_internalencoding']='CP1252';$$++
2495 Please note that all incoming data will then be fed to your application
2496 as UTF-8 to avoid any potential data loss.
2499 ==== Does the library support using cookies / http sessions?
2501 In short: yes, but a little coding is needed to make it
2504 The code below uses sessions to e.g. let the client store a value
2505 on the server and retrieve it later.
2510 $resp = $client->send(new xmlrpcmsg('registervalue', array(new xmlrpcval('foo'), new xmlrpcval('bar'))));
2511 if (!$resp->faultCode())
2513 $cookies = $resp->cookies();
2514 if (array_key_exists('PHPSESSID', $cookies)) // nb: make sure to use the correct session cookie name
2516 $session_id = $cookies['PHPSESSID']['value'];
2518 // do some other stuff here...
2520 $client->setcookie('PHPSESSID', $session_id);
2521 $val = $client->send(new xmlrpcmsg('getvalue', array(new xmlrpcval('foo')));
2527 Server-side sessions are handled normally like in any other
2528 php application. Please see the php manual for more information about
2531 NB: unlike web browsers, not all xmlrpc clients support usage of
2532 http cookies. If you have troubles with sessions and control only the
2533 server side of the communication, please check with the makers of the
2534 xmlrpc client in use.
2540 == Integration with the PHP xmlrpc extension
2542 To be documented more...
2544 In short: for the fastest execution possible, you can enable the php
2545 native xmlrpc extension, and use it in conjunction with phpxmlrpc. The
2546 following code snippet gives an example of such integration
2552 /*** client side ***/
2553 $c = new xmlrpc_client('http://phpxmlrpc.sourceforge.net/server.php');
2555 // tell the client to return raw xml as response value
2556 $c->return_type = 'xml';
2558 // let the native xmlrpc extension take care of encoding request parameters
2559 $r = $c->send(xmlrpc_encode_request('examples.getStateName', $_POST['stateno']));
2561 if ($r->faultCode())
2562 // HTTP transport error
2563 echo 'Got error '.$r->faultCode();
2566 // HTTP request OK, but XML returned from server not parsed yet
2567 $v = xmlrpc_decode($r->value());
2568 // check if we got a valid xmlrpc response from server
2570 echo 'Got invalid response';
2572 // check if server sent a fault response
2573 if (xmlrpc_is_fault($v))
2574 echo 'Got xmlrpc fault '.$v['faultCode'];
2576 echo'Got response: '.htmlentities($v);
2585 == Substitution of the PHP xmlrpc extension
2587 Yet another interesting situation is when you are using a ready-made
2588 php application, that provides support for the XMLRPC protocol via the
2589 native php xmlrpc extension, but the extension is not available on your
2590 php install (e.g. because of shared hosting constraints).
2592 Since version 2.1, the PHP-XMLRPC library provides a compatibility
2593 layer that aims to be 100% compliant with the xmlrpc extension API. This
2594 means that any code written to run on the extension should obtain the
2595 exact same results, albeit using more resources and a longer processing
2596 time, using the PHP-XMLRPC library and the extension compatibility module.
2597 The module is part of the EXTRAS package, available as a separate download
2598 from the sourceforge.net website, since version 0.2
2604 == 'Enough of xmlrpcvals!': new style library usage
2608 In the meantime, see docs about xmlrpc_client::return_type and
2609 xmlrpc_server::functions_parameters_types, as well as php_xmlrpc_encode,
2610 php_xmlrpc_decode and php_xmlrpc_decode_xml
2616 == Usage of the debugger
2618 A webservice debugger is included in the library to help during
2619 development and testing.
2621 The interface should be self-explicative enough to need little
2624 image::debugger.gif[,,,,align="center"]
2626 The most useful feature of the debugger is without doubt the "Show
2627 debug info" option. It allows to have a screen dump of the complete http
2628 communication between client and server, including the http headers as
2629 well as the request and response payloads, and is invaluable when
2630 troubleshooting problems with charset encoding, authentication or http
2633 The debugger can take advantage of the JSONRPC library extension, to
2634 allow debugging of JSON-RPC webservices, and of the JS-XMLRPC library
2635 visual editor to allow easy mouse-driven construction of the payload for
2636 remote methods. Both components have to be downloaded separately from the
2637 sourceforge.net web pages and copied to the debugger directory to enable
2638 the extra functionality:
2641 * to enable jsonrpc functionality, download the PHP-XMLRPC
2642 EXTRAS package, and copy the file __jsonrpc.inc__
2643 either to the same directory as the debugger or somewhere in your
2647 * to enable the visual value editing dialog, download the
2648 JS-XMLRPC library, and copy somewhere in the web root files
2649 __visualeditor.php__,
2650 __visualeditor.css__ and the folders
2651 __yui__ and __img__. Then edit the
2652 debugger file __controller.php__ and set
2653 appropriately the variable $editorpath.
2661 __Note:__ not all items the following list have
2662 (yet) been fully documented, and some might not be present in any other
2663 chapter in the manual. To find a more detailed description of new
2664 functions and methods please take a look at the source code of the
2665 library, which is quite thoroughly commented in phpdoc form.
2669 ...to be documented...
2673 __Note:__ this is the last release of the library that will support PHP 5.1 and up.
2674 Future releases will target php 5.3 as minimum supported version.
2676 * when using curl and keepalive, reset curl handle if we did not get back an http 200 response (eg a 302)
2678 * omit port on http 'Host' header if it is 80
2680 * test suite allows interrogating https servers ignoring their certs
2682 * method setAcceptedCompression was failing to disable reception of compressed responses if the
2683 client supported them
2687 This is the first release of the library to only support PHP 5.
2688 Some legacy code has been removed, and support for features such as
2689 exceptions and dateTime objects introduced.
2691 The "beta" tag is meant to indicate the fact that the refactoring
2692 has been more widespread than in precedent releases and that more
2693 changes are likely to be introduced with time - the library is still
2694 considered to be production quality.
2696 * improved: removed all usage of php functions deprecated in
2697 php 5.3, usage of assign-by-ref when creating new objects
2700 * improved: add support for the <ex:nil/> tag used by
2701 the apache library, both in input and output
2703 * improved: add support for dateTime
2704 objects in both in php_xmlrpc_encode and as
2705 parameter for constructor of
2708 * improved: add support for timestamps as parameter for
2709 constructor of xmlrpcval
2711 * improved: add option 'dates_as_objects' to
2712 php_xmlrpc_decode to return
2713 dateTime objects for xmlrpc
2716 * improved: add new method
2718 xmrlpc_client to allow extra flexibility in
2719 tweaking http config, such as explicitly binding to an ip
2722 * improved: add new method
2724 xmrlpc_client to to allow having different
2725 user-agent http headers
2727 * improved: add a new member variable in server class to allow
2728 fine-tuning of the encoding of returned values when the server is
2731 * improved: allow servers in 'xmlrpcvals' mode to also
2732 register plain php functions by defining them in the dispatch map
2733 with an added option
2735 * improved: catch exceptions thrown during execution of php
2736 functions exposed as methods by the server
2738 * fixed: bad encoding if same object is encoded twice using
2743 __Note:__ this is the last release of the
2744 library that will support PHP 4. Future releases (if any) should target
2745 php 5.0 as minimum supported version.
2747 * fixed: encoding of utf-8 characters outside of the BMP
2750 * fixed: character set declarations surrounded by double
2751 quotes were not recognized in http headers
2753 * fixed: be more tolerant in detection of charset in http
2756 * fixed: fix detection of zlib.output_compression
2758 * fixed: use feof() to test if socket connections are to be
2759 closed instead of the number of bytes read (rare bug when
2760 communicating with some servers)
2762 * fixed: format floating point values using the correct
2763 decimal separator even when php locale is set to one that uses
2766 * fixed: improve robustness of the debugger when parsing weird
2767 results from non-compliant servers
2769 * php warning when receiving 'false' in a bool value
2771 * improved: allow the add_to_map server method to add docs for
2774 * improved: added the possibility to wrap for exposure as
2775 xmlrpc methods plain php class methods, object methods and even
2780 * fixed: work aroung bug in php 5.2.2 which broke support of
2783 * fixed: is_dir parameter of setCaCertificate() method is
2786 * fixed: a php warning in xmlrpc_client creator method
2788 * fixed: parsing of '1e+1' as valid float
2790 * fixed: allow errorlevel 3 to work when prev. error handler was
2793 * fixed: usage of client::setcookie() for multiple cookies in
2796 * improved: support for CP1252 charset is not part or the
2797 library but almost possible
2799 * improved: more info when curl is enabled and debug mode is
2803 * fixed: debugger errors on php installs with magic_quotes_gpc
2806 * fixed: support for https connections via proxy
2808 * fixed: wrap_xmlrpc_method() generated code failed to properly
2811 * improved: slightly faster encoding of data which is internally
2814 * improved: debugger always generates a 'null' id for jsonrpc if
2817 * new: debugger can take advantage of a graphical value builder
2818 (it has to be downloaded separately, as part of jsxmlrpc package.
2819 See Appendix D for more details)
2821 * new: support for the <NIL/> xmlrpc extension. see below
2824 * new: server support for the system.getCapabilities xmlrpc
2827 * new: <<wrap_xmlrpc_method,wrap_xmlrpc_method()>>
2828 accepts two new options: debug and return_on_fault
2832 * The wrap_php_function and
2833 wrap_xmlrpc_method functions have been moved
2834 out of the base library file __xmlrpc.inc__ into
2835 a file of their own: __$$xmlrpc_wrappers.php$$__. You
2836 will have to include() / require() it in your scripts if you have
2837 been using those functions. For increased security, the automatic
2838 rebuilding of php object instances out of received xmlrpc structs
2839 in wrap_xmlrpc_method() has been disabled
2840 (but it can be optionally re-enabled). Both
2841 wrap_php_function() and
2842 wrap_xmlrpc_method() functions accept many
2843 more options to fine tune their behaviour, including one to return
2844 the php code to be saved and later used as standalone php
2847 * The constructor of xmlrpcval() values has seen some internal
2848 changes, and it will not throw a php warning anymore when invoked
2849 using an unknown xmlrpc type: the error will only be written to
2850 php error log. Also ++$$new xmlrpcval('true', 'boolean')$$++
2851 is not supported anymore
2854 php_xmlrpc_decode_xml() will take the xml
2855 representation of either an xmlrpc request, response or single
2856 value and return the corresponding php-xmlrpc object
2859 * A new function wrap_xmlrpc_server()has
2860 been added, to wrap all (or some) of the methods exposed by a
2861 remote xmlrpc server into a php class
2863 * A new file has been added:
2864 __$$verify_compat.php$$__, to help users diagnose the
2865 level of compliance of their php installation with the
2868 * Restored compatibility with php 4.0.5 (for those poor souls
2871 * Method xmlrpc_server->service()
2872 now returns a value: either the response payload or xmlrpcresp
2876 xmlrpc_server->add_to_map() now
2877 accepts xmlrpc methods with no param definitions
2879 * Documentation for single parameters of exposed methods can
2880 be added to the dispatch map (and turned into html docs in
2881 conjunction with a future release of the 'extras' package)
2883 * Full response payload is saved into xmlrpcresp object for
2886 * The debugger can now generate code that wraps a remote
2887 method into a php function (works for jsonrpc, too); it also has
2888 better support for being activated via a single GET call (e.g. for
2889 integration into other tools)
2891 * Stricter parsing of incoming xmlrpc messages: two more
2892 invalid cases are now detected (double ++data++
2893 element inside ++array++ and
2894 ++struct++/++array++ after scalar
2895 inside ++value++ element)
2897 * More logging of errors in a lot of situations
2899 * Javadoc documentation of lib files (almost) complete
2901 * Many performance tweaks and code cleanups, plus the usual
2902 crop of bugs fixed (see NEWS file for complete list of
2905 * Lib internals have been modified to provide better support
2906 for grafting extra functionality on top of it. Stay tuned for
2907 future releases of the EXTRAS package (or go read Appendix
2912 * Added to the client class the possibility to use Digest and
2913 NTLM authentication methods (when using the CURL library) for
2914 connecting to servers and NTLM for connecting to proxies
2916 * Added to the client class the possibility to specify
2917 alternate certificate files/directories for authenticating the
2918 peer with when using HTTPS communication
2920 * Reviewed all examples and added a new demo file, containing
2921 a proxy to forward xmlrpc requests to other servers (useful e.g.
2924 * The debugger has been upgraded to reflect the new client
2927 * All known bugs have been squashed, and the lib is more
2928 tolerant than ever of commonly-found mistakes
2930 === 2.0 Release candidate 3
2932 * Added to server class the property
2933 functions_parameters_type, that allows the
2934 server to register plain php functions as xmlrpc methods (i.e.
2935 functions that do not take an xmlrpcmsg object as unique
2938 * let server and client objects serialize calls using a
2939 specified character set encoding for the produced xml instead of
2940 US-ASCII (ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8 supported)
2942 * let php_xmlrpc_decode accept xmlrpcmsg objects as valid
2945 * 'class::method' syntax is now accepted in the server
2948 * xmlrpc_clent::SetDebug() accepts
2949 integer values instead of a boolean value, with debugging level 2
2950 adding to the information printed to screen the complete client
2953 === 2.0 Release candidate 2
2955 * Added a new property of the client object:
2956 ++$$xmlrpc_client->return_type$$++, indicating whether
2957 calls to the send() method will return xmlrpcresp objects whose
2958 value() is an xmlrpcval object, a php value (automatically
2959 decoded) or the raw xml received from the server.
2961 * Added in the extras dir. two new library file:
2963 __jsonrpcs.inc__ containing new classes that
2964 implement support for the json-rpc protocol (alpha quality
2967 * Added a new client method: ++setKey($key,
2968 $keypass)++ to be used in HTTPS connections
2970 * Added a new file containing some benchmarks in the testsuite
2973 === 2.0 Release candidate 1
2975 * Support for HTTP proxies (new method:
2976 ++$$xmlrpc_client::setProxy()$$++)
2978 * Support HTTP compression of both requests and responses.
2979 Clients can specify what kind of compression they accept for
2980 responses between deflate/gzip/any, and whether to compress the
2981 requests. Servers by default compress responses to clients that
2982 explicitly declare support for compression (new methods:
2983 ++$$xmlrpc_client::setAcceptedCompression()$$++,
2984 ++$$xmlrpc_client::setRequestCompression()$$++). Note that the
2985 ZLIB php extension needs to be enabled in PHP to support
2988 * Implement HTTP 1.1 connections, but only if CURL is enabled
2989 (added an extra parameter to
2990 ++$$xmlrpc_client::xmlrpc_client$$++ to set the desired HTTP
2991 protocol at creation time and a new supported value for the last
2992 parameter of ++$$xmlrpc_client::send$$++, which now can be
2993 safely omitted if it has been specified at creation time)
2995 With PHP versions greater than 4.3.8 keep-alives are enabled
2996 by default for HTTP 1.1 connections. This should yield faster
2997 execution times when making multiple calls in sequence to the same
2998 xml-rpc server from a single client.
3000 * Introduce support for cookies. Cookies to be sent to the
3001 server with a request can be set using
3002 ++$$xmlrpc_client::setCookie()$$++, while cookies received from
3003 the server are found in ++xmlrpcresp::cookies()++. It is
3004 left to the user to check for validity of received cookies and
3005 decide whether they apply to successive calls or not.
3007 * Better support for detecting different character set encodings
3008 of xml-rpc requests and responses: both client and server objects
3009 will correctly detect the charset encoding of received xml, and use
3010 an appropriate xml parser.
3012 Supported encodings are US-ASCII, UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1.
3014 * Added one new xmlrpcmsg constructor syntax, allowing usage of
3015 a single string with the complete URL of the target server
3017 * Convert xml-rpc boolean values into native php values instead
3020 * Force the ++$$php_xmlrpc_encode$$++ function to properly
3021 encode numerically indexed php arrays into xml-rpc arrays
3022 (numerically indexed php arrays always start with a key of 0 and
3023 increment keys by values of 1)
3025 * Prevent the ++$$php_xmlrpc_encode$$++ function from
3026 further re-encoding any objects of class ++xmlrpcval++ that
3027 are passed to it. This allows to call the function with arguments
3028 consisting of mixed php values / xmlrpcval objects.
3030 * Allow a server to NOT respond to system.* method calls
3031 (setting the ++$$$server->allow_system_funcs$$++
3034 * Implement a new xmlrpcval method to determine if a value of
3035 type struct has a member of a given name without having to loop
3036 trough all members: ++xmlrpcval::structMemExists()++
3038 * Expand methods ++xmlrpcval::addArray++,
3039 ++addScalar++ and ++addStruct++ allowing extra php
3040 values to be added to xmlrpcval objects already formed.
3042 * Let the ++$$xmlrpc_client::send$$++ method accept an XML
3043 string for sending instead of an xmlrpcmsg object, to facilitate
3044 debugging and integration with the php native xmlrpc
3047 * Extend the ++$$php_xmlrpc_encode$$++ and
3048 ++$$php_xmlrpc_decode$$++ functions to allow serialization and
3049 rebuilding of PHP objects. To successfully rebuild a serialized
3050 object, the object class must be defined in the deserializing end of
3051 the transfer. Note that object members of type resource will be
3052 deserialized as NULL values.
3054 Note that his has been implemented adding a "php_class"
3055 attribute to xml representation of xmlrpcval of STRUCT type, which,
3056 strictly speaking, breaks the xml-rpc spec. Other xmlrpc
3057 implementations are supposed to ignore such an attribute (unless
3058 they implement a brain-dead custom xml parser...), so it should be
3059 safe enabling it in heterogeneous environments. The activation of
3060 this feature is done by usage of an option passed as second
3061 parameter to both ++$$php_xmlrpc_encode$$++ and
3062 ++$$php_xmlrpc_decode$$++.
3064 * Extend the ++$$php_xmlrpc_encode$$++ function to allow
3065 automatic serialization of iso8601-conforming php strings as
3066 datetime.iso8601 xmlrpcvals, by usage of an optional
3069 * Added an automatic stub code generator for converting xmlrpc
3070 methods to php functions and vice-versa.
3072 This is done via two new functions:
3073 ++$$wrap_php_function$$++ and ++$$wrap_xmlrpc_method$$++,
3074 and has many caveats, with php being a typeless language and
3077 * Allow object methods to be used in server dispatch map
3079 * Added a complete debugger solution, in the
3082 * Added configurable server-side debug messages, controlled by
3083 the new method ++$$xmlrpc_server::SetDebug()$$++. At level 0,
3084 no debug messages are sent to the client; level 1 is the same as the
3085 old behaviour; at level 2 a lot more info is echoed back to the
3086 client, regarding the received call; at level 3 all warnings raised
3087 during server processing are trapped (this prevents breaking the xml
3088 to be echoed back to the client) and added to the debug info sent
3091 * New XML parsing code, yields smaller memory footprint and
3092 faster execution times, not to mention complete elimination of the
3093 dreaded __eval()__ construct, so prone to code
3096 * Rewritten most of the error messages, making text more
3099 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3100 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
3105 sgml-minimize-attributes:nil
3106 sgml-always-quote-attributes:t
3109 sgml-parent-document:nil
3110 sgml-exposed-tags:nil
3111 sgml-local-catalogs:nil
3112 sgml-local-ecat-files:nil
3113 sgml-namecase-general:t
3114 sgml-general-insert-case:lower
3117 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
git://git.onelab.eu / plcapi.git / blob