5. xmlrpc_server

The current implementation of this class has been kept as simple as possible. The constructor for the server basically does all the work. Here's a minimal example:

  function foo ($params) {
     ...
  }

  $s=new xmlrpc_server( array("examples.myFunc" =>
                                array("function" => "foo")));
          

This performs everything you need to do with a server. The single argument is an associative array from method names to function names. The request is parsed and dispatched to the relevant function, which is responsible for returning a xmlrpcresp object, which gets serialized back to the caller. See server.php in this distribution for examples of how to do this.

Here is a more detailed look at what the handler function foo may do:


  function foo ($params) {
        global $xmlrpcerruser; // import user errcode value

        // $params is an Array of xmlrpcval objects

        if ($err) {
          // this is an error condition
          return new xmlrpcresp(0, $xmlrpcerruser+1, // user error 1
           "There's a problem, Captain");
        } else {
          // this is a successful value being returned
          return new xmlrpcresp(new xmlrpcval("All's fine!", "string"));
        }
  }
                

5.1. The dispatch map

The first argument to the xmlrpc_server constructor is an array, called the dispatch map. In this array is the information the server needs to service the XML-RPC methods you define.

The dispatch map takes the form of an associative array of associative arrays: the outer array has one entry for each method, the key being the method name. The corresponding value is another associative array, which can have the following members:

  • function - this entry is mandatory. It must be a name of a function in the global scope which services the XML-RPC method.

  • signature - this entry is an array containing the possible signatures (see Signatures) for the method. If this entry is present then the server will check that the correct number and type of parameters have been sent for this method before dispatching it.

  • docstring - this entry is a string containing documentation for the method. The documentation may contain HTML markup.

Look at the server.php example in the distribution to see what a dispatch map looks like.

5.2. Method signatures

A signature is a description of a method's return type and its parameter types. A method may have more than one signature.

Within a server's dispatch map, each method has an array of possible signatures. Each signature is an array of types. The first entry is the return type. For instance, the method

string examples.getStateName(int)

has the signature

array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt)

and, assuming that it the only possible signature for the method, might be used like this in server creation:

$findstate_sig=array(array($xmlrpcString, $xmlrpcInt));

$findstate_doc='When passed an integer between 1 and 51 returns the
name of a US state, where the integer is the index of that state name
in an alphabetic order.';

$s=new xmlrpc_server( array( "examples.getStateName" => 
                                                array("function" => "findstate",
                                                "signature" => $findstate_sig,
                                                "docstring" => $findstate_doc)));

5.3. Delaying the server response

You may want to construct the server, but for some reason not fulfill the request immediately (security verification, for instance). If you pass the constructor a second argument of 0 this will have the desired effect. You can then use the service() method of the server class to service the request. For example:

$s=new xmlrpc_server($myDispMap, 0);

// ... some code that does other stuff here

$s->service();

5.4. Fault reporting

Fault codes for your servers should start at the value indicated by the global $xmlrpcerruser + 1.

Standard errors returned by the server include:

1 Unknown method

Returned if the server was asked to dispatch a method it didn't know about

2 Invalid return payload

This error is actually generated by the client, not server, code, but signifies that a server returned something it couldn't understand. A more detailed error report is sometimes added onto the end of the phrase above.

3 Incorrect parameters

This error is generated when the server has signature(s) defined for a method, and the parameters passed by the client do not match any of signatures.

4 Can't introspect: method unknown

This error is generated by the builtin system.* methods when any kind of introspection is attempted on a method undefined by the server.

5 Didn't receive 200 OK from remote server

This error is generated by the client when a remote server doesn't return HTTP/1.1 200 OK in response to a request. A more detailed error report is added onto the end of the phrase above.

6 No data received from server

This error is generated by the client when a remote server returns HTTP/1.1 200 OK in response to a request, but no response body follows the HTTP headers.

7 No SSL support compiled in

This error is generated by the client when trying to send a request with HTTPS and the CURL extension is not available to PHP.

8 CURL error

This error is generated by the client when trying to send a request with HTTPS and the HTTPS communication fails.

9-14 multicall errors

These errors are generated by the server when something fails inside a system.multicall request.

100- XML parse errors

Returns 100 plus the XML parser error code for the fault that occurred. The faultString returned explains where the parse error was in the incoming XML stream.