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XML-RPC

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XML-RPC is a <a href="Remote_procedure_call" title="Remote procedure call">remote procedure call</a> (RPC) <a href="Communications_protocol" class="mw-redirect" title="Communications protocol">protocol</a> which uses <a href="XML" title="XML">XML</a> to encode its calls and <a href="HTTP" title="HTTP">HTTP</a> as a transport mechanism.<a href="#cite_note-book1-1">[1]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

The XML-RPC protocol was created in 1998 by <a href="Dave_Winer" title="Dave Winer">Dave Winer</a> of <a href="UserLand_Software" title="UserLand Software">UserLand Software</a> and <a href="Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>,<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a> with Microsoft seeing the protocol as an essential part of scaling up its efforts in business-to-business e-commerce.<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a> As new functionality was introduced, the standard evolved into what is now <a href="SOAP_(protocol)" class="mw-redirect" title="SOAP (protocol)">SOAP</a>.<a href="#cite_note-spearheads-4">[4]</a>

UserLand supported XML-RPC from version 5.1 of its Frontier web content management system,<a href="#cite_note-spearheads-4">[4]</a> released in June 1998.<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

XML-RPC's idea of a human-readable-and-writable, script-parsable standard for HTTP-based requests and responses has also been implemented in competing specifications such as Allaire's <a href="WDDX" title="WDDX">Web Distributed Data Exchange</a> (WDDX) and webMethod's <a href="WIDL_(Internet_Standard)" title="WIDL (Internet Standard)">Web Interface Definition Language</a> (WIDL).<a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a> Prior art wrapping <a href="Component_Object_Model" title="Component Object Model">COM</a>, <a href="Common_Object_Request_Broker_Architecture" title="Common Object Request Broker Architecture">CORBA</a>, and <a href="Java_remote_method_invocation" title="Java remote method invocation">Java RMI</a> objects in XML syntax and transporting them via HTTP also existed in DataChannel's WebBroker technology.<a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a><a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a>

The generic use of XML for <a href="Remote_procedure_call" title="Remote procedure call">remote procedure call</a> (RPC) was patented by Phillip Merrick, Stewart Allen, and Joseph Lapp in April 2006, claiming benefit to a provisional application filed in March 1998. The patent was assigned to <a href="WebMethods" title="WebMethods">webMethods</a>, located in <a href="Fairfax%2C_Virginia" title="Fairfax, Virginia">Fairfax, Virginia</a>. The patent expired on March 23, 2019.<a href="#cite_note-merrick01-9">[9]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Usage">Usage</h2></div>

In XML-RPC, a client performs an RPC by sending an HTTP request to a server that implements XML-RPC and receives the HTTP response. A call can have multiple parameters and one result. The protocol defines a few data types for the parameters and result. Some of these data types are complex, i.e. nested. For example, you can have a parameter that is an array of five integers.

The parameters/result structure and the set of data types are meant to mirror those used in common programming languages.

Identification of clients for authorization purposes can be achieved using popular HTTP security methods. <a href="Basic_access_authentication" title="Basic access authentication">Basic access authentication</a> can be used for identification and authentication.

In comparison to RESTful protocols, where resource representations (documents) are transferred, XML-RPC is designed to call methods. The practical difference is just that XML-RPC is much more structured, which means common library code can be used to implement clients and servers and there is less design and documentation work for a specific application protocol. One salient technical difference between typical RESTful protocols and XML-RPC is that many RESTful protocols use the HTTP URI for parameter information, whereas with XML-RPC, the URI just identifies the server.

<a href="JSON-RPC" title="JSON-RPC">JSON-RPC</a> is similar to XML-RPC.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Data_types">Data types</h2></div>

Common <a href="Datatype" class="mw-redirect" title="Datatype">datatypes</a> are converted into their XML equivalents with example values shown below:

<th>Name

</th>

<th>Tag Example

</th>

<th>Description

</th></tr>

<tr>

<td>array

</td>

<td>

<data>

<value><string>Something here</string></value>

</data>

</array>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Array_data_structure" class="mw-redirect" title="Array data structure">Array</a> of values, storing no keys

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>base64

</td>

<td>

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-xml mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre><base64>eW91IGNhbid0IHJlYWQgdGhpcyE=</base64>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Base64" title="Base64">Base64</a>-encoded binary data

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>boolean

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Boolean_data_type" title="Boolean data type">Boolean</a> logical value (0 or 1)

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>date/time

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td>Date and time in <a href="ISO_8601" title="ISO 8601">ISO 8601</a> format

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>double

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Double_precision" class="mw-redirect" title="Double precision">Double precision</a> floating point number

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>integer

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

or

</pre></div>

</td>

<td>Signed <a href="Integer" title="Integer">integer</a> coded on 4 bytes

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>string

</td>

<td>

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-xml mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre><string>Hello world!</string>

</pre></div>

or

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-xml mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre>Hello world!

</pre></div>

</td>

<td>String of characters. Must follow <a href="XML#Characters_and_escaping" title="XML">XML encoding</a>.

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>struct

</td>

<td>

</member>

</member>

</struct>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Associative_array" title="Associative array">Associative array</a>

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>nil

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td><a href="Nullable_type" title="Nullable type">Discriminated null value</a>; an XML-RPC <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050911054235/http://ontosys.com/xml-rpc/extensions.php">extension</a>

</td>

<td>

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td>long

</td>

<td>

</pre></div>

</td>

<td>Signed integer coded on 8 bytes. This is not part of the specification, but it is supported by several XML-RPC implementations<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a> · <a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2></div>

An example of a typical XML-RPC request would be:

<methodName>examples.getStateName</methodName>

<param>

</param>

</params>

</methodCall>

</pre></div>

An example of a typical XML-RPC response would be:

<param>

<value><string>South Dakota</string></value>

</param>

</params>

</methodResponse>

</pre></div>

A typical XML-RPC fault would be:

<fault>

<value>

<name>faultCode</name>

</member>

<name>faultString</name>

<value><string>Too many parameters.</string></value>

</member>

</struct>

</value>

</fault>

</methodResponse>

</pre></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Criticism">Criticism</h2></div>

Recent critics (from 2010 and onwards) of XML-RPC argue that RPC calls can be made with plain XML, and that XML-RPC does not add any value over XML. Both XML-RPC and XML require an application-level data model, such as which field names are defined in the XML schema or the parameter names in XML-RPC. Furthermore, XML-RPC uses about 4 times the number of bytes compared to plain XML to encode the same objects, which is itself verbose compared to <a href="JSON" title="JSON">JSON</a>.<a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a><a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a><a href="#cite_note-14">[14]</a>

<ul><li><a href="Weblogs.com" title="Weblogs.com">Weblogs.com</a></li>

<li><a href="Pingback" title="Pingback">Pingback</a></li>

<li><a href="Ajax_(programming)" title="Ajax (programming)">Ajax (programming)</a></li>

<li><a href="Software_componentry" class="mw-redirect" title="Software componentry">Component technologies</a></li>

<li><a href="Comparison_of_data_serialization_formats" class="mw-redirect" title="Comparison of data serialization formats">Comparison of data serialization formats</a></li>

<li><a href="Web_service" title="Web service">Web service</a></li>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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<li id="cite_note-book1-1"><a href="#cite_ref-book1_1-0">^</a> Simon St. Laurent, Joe Johnston, Edd Dumbill. (June 2001) Programming Web Services with XML-RPC. O'Reilly. First Edition.

</li>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFBox2001" class="citation web cs1">Box, Don (1 April 2001). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2001/04/04/soap.html">"A Brief History of SOAP"</a>. <a href="O'Reilly_Media" title="O'Reilly Media">O'Reilly</a>. Retrieved 27 October 2010.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFRupley1999" class="citation web cs1">Rupley, Sebastian (30 June 1999). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000304215507/http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/trends/0,7607,2286488,00.html">"XML's Next Step"</a>. PC Magazine. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/trends/0,7607,2286488,00.html">the original</a> on 4 March 2000. Retrieved 17 November 2015.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-spearheads-4">^ <a href="#cite_ref-spearheads_4-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-spearheads_4-1">b</a> <cite id="CITEREFWalsh1999" class="citation news cs1">Walsh, Jeff (10 July 1999). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990914001234/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980710.whsoap.htm">"Microsoft spearheads protocol push"</a>. Infoworld. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980710.whsoap.htm">the original</a> on 14 September 1999. Retrieved 17 November 2015.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFWalsh1998" class="citation web cs1">Walsh, Jeff (29 June 1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990915175718/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980629.wifrontier.htm">"UserLand releases Frontier 5.1, drops freeware model"</a>. InfoWorld. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980629.wifrontier.htm">the original</a> on 15 September 1999. Retrieved 17 November 2015.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFUdell1999" class="citation news cs1">Udell, Jon (7 June 1999). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000304171225/http://www.byte.com/features/1999/06/0607XML_RPC5.html">"Exploring XML-RPC: DCOM? CORBA? RMI? Why Not Just XML-RPC?"</a>. Byte. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.byte.com/features/1999/06/0607XML_RPC5.html">the original</a> on 4 March 2000. Retrieved 17 November 2015.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFWalsh1998" class="citation news cs1">Walsh, Jeff (25 May 1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990910213004/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/98/21/i06-21.80.htm">"W3C gives a nod to DataChannel's WebBroker"</a>. Infoworld. Vol. 20, no. 21. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/98/21/i06-21.80.htm">the original</a> on 10 September 1999. Retrieved 17 November 2015.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFVizardWalsh1998" class="citation web cs1">Vizard, Michael; Walsh, Jeff (29 June 1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990916093829/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/interviews/980629pool.htm">"DataChannel's Dave Pool talks about shaping the role of XML to suit different needs"</a>. Infoworld. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/interviews/980629pool.htm">the original</a> on 16 September 1999. Retrieved 8 December 2015.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-merrick01-9"><a href="#cite_ref-merrick01_9-0">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFMerrick2006" class="citation web cs1">Merrick; et al. (11 April 2006). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111203095836/http://www.google.com/patents?id=WFV4AAAAEBAJ">"US Patent 7,028,312"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.google.com/patents?id=WFV4AAAAEBAJ">the original</a> on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2008.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://metacpan.org/pod/RPC::XML">"RPC::XML - A set of classes for core data, message and XML handling - metacpan.org"</a>. MetaCPAN. Retrieved 13 April 2025.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.io/doc/libgeneral.html">"User manual for XML-RPC For C/C++"</a>. Retrieved 13 April 2025.</cite>

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<cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1376688">"What is the benefit of XML-RPC over plain XML?"</a>. <a href="Stack_Overflow" title="Stack Overflow">Stack Overflow</a>. 9 September 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2011.</cite>

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<cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/XmlRpcDiscussion?action=show&redirect=DontUseXmlRpc">"An open poll on the merits of XmlRpc versus alternatives"</a>. intertwingly.net. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 7 April 2011.</cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFJon_Canady2010" class="citation web cs1">Jon Canady (14 January 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130511053512/http://joncanady.com/blog/2010/01/14/if-you-have-rest-why-xml-rpc/">"If you have REST, why XML-RPC?"</a>. joncanady.com. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://joncanady.com/blog/2010/01/14/if-you-have-rest-why-xml-rpc/">the original</a> on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2011.</cite>

</li>

</ol></div></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130113041824/http://xmlrpc.scripting.com/default.html">Official website</a> at the <a href="Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a> (archived 2013-01-13)</li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-06-25" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=XML-RPC&oldid=1297291690">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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