frontier::client(3)

NAME

Frontier::Client - issue Frontier XML RPC requests to a
server

SYNOPSIS

use Frontier::Client;
$server = Frontier::Client->new( I<OPTIONS> );
$result = $server->call($method, @args);
$boolean = $server->boolean($value);
$date_time = $server->date_time($value);
$base64 = $server->base64($value);
$value = $boolean->value;
$value = $date_time->value;
$value = $base64->value;

DESCRIPTION

Frontier::Client is an XML-RPC client over HTTP. Fron_ tier::Client instances are used to make calls to XML-RPC servers and as shortcuts for creating XML-RPC special data
types.

METHODS

new( OPTIONS )

Returns a new instance of Frontier::Client and associ ates it with an XML-RPC server at a URL. OPTIONS may be a list of key, value pairs or a hash containing the
following parameters:

url The URL of the server. This parameter is

required. For example:

$server = Frontier::Client->new( 'url' =>

'http://betty.userland.com/RPC2' );

proxy

A URL of a proxy to forward XML-RPC calls through.

encoding

The XML encoding to be specified in the XML decla
ration of outgoing RPC requests. Incoming results
may have a different encoding specified;
XML::Parser will convert incoming data to UTF-8.
The default outgoing encoding is none, which uses
XML 1.0's default of UTF-8. For example:

$server = Frontier::Client->new( 'url' =>

'http://betty.userland.com/RPC2',

'encoding' =>

'ISO-8859-1' );

use_objects

If set to a non-zero value will convert incoming
<i4>, <float>, and <string> values to objects
instead of scalars. See int(), float(), and string() below for more details.

debug

If set to a non-zero value will print the encoded
XML request and the XML response received.

call($method, @args)

Forward a procedure call to the server, either return
ing the value returned by the procedure or failing
with exception. `$method' is the name of the server
method, and `@args' is a list of arguments to pass.
Arguments may be Perl hashes, arrays, scalar values,
or the XML-RPC special data types below.

boolean( $value )
date_time( $value )
base64( $base64 )

The methods `"boolean()"', `"date_time()"', and
`"base64()"' create and return XML-RPC-specific
datatypes that can be passed to `"call()"'. Results
from servers may also contain these datatypes. The
corresponding package names (for use with `"ref()"',
for example) are `"Frontier::RPC2::Boolean"', `"Fron
tier::RPC2::DateTime::ISO8601"', and `"Fron
tier::RPC2::Base64"'.

The value of boolean, date/time, and base64 data can
be set or returned using the `"value()"' method. For
example:

# To set a value:
$a_boolean->value(1);

# To retrieve a value
$base64 = $base64_xml_rpc_data->value();

Note: `"base64()"' does not encode or decode base64
data for you, you must use MIME::Base64 or similar
module for that.

int( 42 );
float( 3.14159 );
string( "Foo" );

By default, you may pass ordinary Perl values
(scalars) to be encoded. RPC2 automatically converts
them to XML-RPC types if they look like an integer,
float, or as a string. This assumption causes prob
lems when you want to pass a string that looks like
"0096", RPC2 will convert that to an <i4> because it
looks like an integer. With these methods, you could
now create a string object like this:

$part_num = $server->string("0096");

and be confident that it will be passed as an XML-RPC
string. You can change and retrieve values from
objects using value() as described above.

SEE ALSO

perl(1), Frontier::RPC2(3)

<http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/xml/code/rpc.html>

AUTHOR

Ken MacLeod <ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us>

perl v5.8.0 1999-11-21 Frontier::Client(3)