File: xmlrpc.xml

package info (click to toggle)
kamailio 4.2.0-2%2Bdeb8u3
  • links: PTS, VCS
  • area: main
  • in suites: jessie
  • size: 56,276 kB
  • sloc: ansic: 552,836; xml: 166,484; sh: 8,659; makefile: 7,676; sql: 6,235; perl: 3,487; yacc: 3,428; python: 1,457; cpp: 1,219; php: 1,047; java: 449; pascal: 194; cs: 40; awk: 27
file content (767 lines) | stat: -rw-r--r-- 25,665 bytes parent folder | download | duplicates (2)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [

<!-- Include general documentation entities -->
<!ENTITY % docentities SYSTEM "../../../docbook/entities.xml">
%docentities;

]>

<book id="xmlrpc" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
    <bookinfo>
	<title>The XMLRPC Module</title>
	<authorgroup>
		<author>
		<firstname>Jan</firstname>
		<surname>Janak</surname>
		<affiliation><orgname>iptelorg GmbH</orgname></affiliation>
		<address>
			<email>jan@iptel.org</email>
		</address>
		</author>
	</authorgroup>
	<copyright>
		<year>2005</year>
		<holder>iptelorg GmbH</holder>
	</copyright>
	</bookinfo>


	<section id="xmlrpc.design">
	<title>Design Goals</title>
	<para>
	    
	</para>
	<itemizedlist>
	    <listitem>
		<para>Implemented as a module.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>API independent of transport protocols.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>Reuse transports available in &kamailio;.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>The possibility to encrypt all communication.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>The possibility to authenticate clients.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>Easy integration with existing languages and
		    implementations.</para>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem>
		<para>
		    Easy and straightforward implementation of management
		    functions in &kamailio; modules.
		</para>
	    </listitem>
	</itemizedlist>
	</section>

	<section id="xmlrpc.overview">
	<title>Overview of Operation</title>
	<para>
		This module implements the XML-RPC transport and encoding interface
		for &kamailio; RPCs.
	</para>
	<para>
	    The XML-RPC protocol encodes the name of the method
	    to be called along with its parameter in an XML document which is
	    then conveyed using HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) to the
	    server. The server will extract the name of the function to be
	    called along with its parameters from the XML document, execute the
	    function, and encode any data returned by the function into another
	    XML document which is then returned to the client in the body of a
	    200 OK reply to the HTTP request.
	</para>
	<para>
	    XML-RPC is similar to more popular <ulink
		url="http://www.w3.org/TR/soap/">SOAP</ulink> (Simple Object
		Access Protocol), which is an XML-based messaging framework
		used in Web Services developed within the <ulink
		url="http://www.w3c.org">World Wide Web
		Consortium</ulink>. Both protocols are using HTTP as the
		transport protocol for XML documents, but XML-RPC is much
		simpler and easier to implement than SOAP.
	</para>
	<para>
	    Here is an example of single XML-RPC function call to determine
	    current time:
	</para>
	<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
POST /RPC2 HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: Radio UserLand/7.1b7 (WinNT)
Host: time.xmlrpc.com
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-length: 131
	    
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>currentTime.getCurrentTime</methodName>
<params>
</params>
</methodCall>
]]>
	</programlisting>
	<para>
	    And the response returned by the server:
	</para>
	<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Content-Length: 183
Content-Type: text/xml
Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 15:53:38 GMT
Server: UserLand Frontier/7.0.1-WinNT

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodResponse>
<params>
<param>
<value><dateTime.iso8601>20011003T08:53:38</dateTime.iso8601>
</value>
</param>
</params>
</methodResponse>
]]>
	</programlisting>
	<para>
	    XML-RPC specification spells HTTP as the official transport
	    protocol for XML-RPC documents. &kamailio; does not directly support
	    HTTP, it is a SIP server so SIP is the only protocol supported by
	    &kamailio;. Because we would like to reuse all transport protocols
	    available in &kamailio;, such as TCP and TLS, it would be natural to use
	    modified version of XML-RPC which would run on top of SIP instead
	    of HTTP. XML-RPC documents would be then encoded in the bodies of
	    SIP requests and replies would be sent by the server in the bodies of
	    SIP replies. This way we could reuse all transport protocols
	    (including UDP) and message parsers available in &kamailio;.
	</para>
	<para>
	    Although this approach seems to be the logical choice, there is one
	    big drawback. No existing XML-RPC implementations support SIP as the
	    transport protocol, and there are many existing implementations
	    available for vast majority of existing languages. See the <ulink
	    url="http://www.xmlrpc.com/directory/1568/implementations">XML-RPC
	    implementation page</ulink> for more details. Extending existing
	    implementations with SIP support would not be easy.
	</para>
	<para>
	    Because  extending available XML-RPC implementation would be too
	    expensive, we could also do it the other way around, keep existing
	    XML-RPC implementations and extend &kamailio; to support HTTP. Extending
	    &kamailio; with HTTP support is easier than it might seem at a first
	    glance, due to the similarity between SIP requests and HTTP
	    requests.
	</para>
	<para>
	    &kamailio; already supports TCP, so existing HTTP implementations can send
	    HTTP requests to it. HTTP requests are missing certain mandatory
	    SIP header fields, such as Via, From, and CSeq. The contents of the
	    header fields is mainly used for transaction matching. A SIP server
	    could perform two basic operations when processing an HTTP
	    request:
	    <itemizedlist>
		<listitem>
		    <para>
			Terminate the request, execute the function and send a
			reply back.
		    </para>
		</listitem>
		<listitem>
		    <para>
			Forward the request to another SIP server.
		    </para>
		</listitem>
	    </itemizedlist>
	</para>
	<para>
	    Nothing special is needed on the SIP server terminating the
	    request, except that it has to know where it should send the
	    reply. Parsing of HTTP header field bodies would fail because we do
	    not have parsers for them in &kamailio;, but that does not matter anyway
	    because all the information is encoded in the body of the
	    request. HTTP requests contain no Via header fields. Via header
	    fields are used by SIP implementations to determine the destination
	    (IP, transport protocol, and port number) for replies. When
	    processing HTTP requests the SIP server needs to create a fake Via
	    header field based on the source IP address and port number of the
	    TCP connection. The SIP server will use this information when
	    sending a reply back.
	</para>
	<para>
	    Forwarding of HTTP requests by SIP proxies is a little bit more
	    complicated and there are several limitations. First of all, we can
	    only use stateless forwarding, no transactional forwarding, because
	    HTTP requests do not contain all the header fields needed for
	    transaction matching. Any attempt to call t_relay on an HTTP
	    requests would fail. HTTP requests always use TCP and thus we could
	    use stateless forwarding on the SIP server, provided that the
	    request will be also forwarded over TCP. Stateless forwarding does
	    not require the mandatory header fields (which are missing here)
	    and it would work. In addition to that, the SIP server would also
	    append fake Via header field to the request and change the contents
	    of the Request-URI. The Request-URI of HTTP requests sent by XML-RPC
	    implementations typically contain something like "/RPC2" and the
	    first SIP server processing the request should rewrite the value
	    with a valid SIP URI.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <xref linkend="fig.rpc_example"/> shows a scenario which involves
	    two SIP servers, one performs HTTP request "normalization" and
	    forwarding, and the other terminates the request, executes
	    corresponding function, and generates a reply.
	</para>
	<mediaobject id="fig.rpc_example" xreflabel="Figure RPC Example">
	    <imageobject>
		<imagedata align="center" fileref="xmlrpc_example.png" format="PNG"/>
	    </imageobject>
	    <textobject>
		<para>Example RPC Scenario</para>
	    </textobject>
	    <caption>
		Example RPC Scenario
	    </caption>
	</mediaobject>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 1.</emphasis> An HTTP user agent sends an ordinary
	    HTTP request to a SIP server. The user agent can either establish a
	    connection directly to port 5060 or the SIP server can be
	    configured to listen on port 80. The request contains standard HTTP
	    headers and an XML-RPC document in the body:
	    <programlisting>
<![CDATA[
POST / HTTP/1.0.
Host: localhost:5060
User-Agent: xmlrpclib.py/1.0.1 (by www.pythonware.com)
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: 111

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>]]><emphasis>usrloc.statistics</emphasis><![CDATA[</methodName>
<params>
</params>
</methodCall>
]]>
	    </programlisting>
	    This particular request calls method "statistics" from from usrloc
	    module of &kamailio;. The method has no parameters.
	</para>
	<para>
	    The outbound SIP server receives the HTTP request and performs a
	    set of actions called "SIP-normalization". This includes creation
	    of fake Via header field based on the source IP and port of the TCP
	    connection, looking up of the target SIP server that should
	    terminate and process the request, and rewriting of the Request-URI
	    with the SIP URI of the target SIP server. Modified HTTP request
	    will be then forwarded statelessly to the target SIP server.
	    <programlisting>
POST <emphasis>sip:proxy01.sip-server.net</emphasis> HTTP/1.0
<emphasis>Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:3571</emphasis>
Host: localhost:5060
User-Agent: xmlrpclib.py/1.0.1 (by www.pythonware.com)
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: 111
<![CDATA[
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<methodCall>
<methodName>usrloc.statistics</methodName>
<params>
</params>
</methodCall>
]]>
	    </programlisting>
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 2.</emphasis> "normalized" HTTP request is
	    statelessly forwarded to the target SIP server over TCP.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 3.</emphasis> The target SIP server receives the
	    HTTP request and executes function called
	    <function>dispatch_rpc</function> from xmlrpc &kamailio; module. This
	    function will parse the XML-RPC document in the body of the request
	    and lookup the function to be called among all RPC functions
	    exported by the &kamailio; core and modules. Function
	    <function>dispatch_rpc</function> will be called from the
	    configuration file just like any other function:
	    <programlisting>
if (method == "POST" || method == "GET") {
    <emphasis>dispatch_rpc();</emphasis>
    break;
};
	    </programlisting>
	    This particular configuration snippet executes the function
	    whenever &kamailio; receives GET or POST requests. These two method names
	    indicate HTTP.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 4.</emphasis> The function
	    <function>dispatch_rpc</function> scans through the list of all
	    exported RPC functions searching for the
	    <function>statistics</function> function of the usrloc module. The
		<ulink url='http://sip-router.org/docbook/sip-router/branch/master/rpc/ser_rpc.html'>
		&kamailio; RPC Module API</ulink>
		describes in detail how modules export RPC functions.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 5.</emphasis> As the RPC function from usrloc module
	    is running and gathering statistics, it calls functions of RPC
	    interface to prepare the result for the caller.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Step 6.</emphasis> Once the RPC function finishes, xmlrpc
	    module will build the XML-RPC document from the data received from
	    usrloc module and generate a reply which will be sent to the caller.
	</para>
	<para>
	    <emphasis>Steps 7. and 8.</emphasis> HTTP reply is sent back to the
	    caller and the remote procedure call finishes.
	    <programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:3571
Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))
Content-Length: 651
Warning: 392 127.0.0.1:5060 "Noisy feedback tells:  pid=9975 req_src_ip=127.0.0
1 req_src_port=3571 in_uri=/ out_uri=sip:proxy01.sip-server.net via_cnt==1"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<methodResponse>
<params>
<param><value><array><data>
<value><struct>
<member><name>domain</name>
<value><string>aliases</string></value></member>
<member><name>users</name>
<value><i4>0</i4></value></member>
<member><name>expired</name>
<value><i4>0</i4></value></member>
</struct></value>
<value><struct>
<member><name>domain</name>
<value><string>location</string></value></member>
<member><name>users</name>
<value><i4>0</i4></value></member>
<member><name>expired</name>
<value><i4>0</i4></value></member>
</struct></value>
</data></array></value></param>
</params>
</methodResponse>
]]>
	    </programlisting>
	</para>
	<note>
	    <para>
		The scenario described on <xref linkend="fig.rpc_example"/>
		involves two SIP servers. This is just to demonstrate that in
		setups containing more SIP servers it is possible to forward
		HTTP requests from one SIP server to another and use standard
		SIP routing mechanisms to decide which SIP server should
		process the request. There is no need to have multiple SIP
		servers in simple setups, because one SIP server can both add 
		fake Via header field and process the RPC at the same
		time. Modified configuration file snipped could then look like
		this:
		<programlisting>
if (method == "POST" || method == "GET") {
    <emphasis>dispatch_rpc();</emphasis> # Process the request
    break;
};
		</programlisting>
	    </para>
	</note>
    </section>



	<section id="xmlrpc.implementation">
	<title>XML-RPC Implementation</title>
	<para>
	    The purpose of the functions of this module is to convert XML-RPC
	    document carried in the body of HTTP requests into data returned by
	    the RPC interface and back. The module also contains functions
	    necessary to "normalize" HTTP requests. The module uses <ulink
		url="http://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.net">xmlrpc-c</ulink>
	    library to perform XML-RPC related functions.
	</para>
	<para>
	    The module always returns 200 OK HTTP reply, it will never return
	    any other HTTP reply. Failures are expressed in XML-RPC documents
	    in the body of the reply. There is basic method introspection
	    support in the module. Currently the module can list all functions
	    exported by the server and for each function it can return the
	    documentation string describing the function.
	</para>
	<section id="xmlrpc.implementation.requests">
	    <title>Requests</title>
	    <para>
		Requests processed by the module are standard XML-RPC requests
		encoded in bodies of HTTP requests.
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
POST / HTTP/1.0
Host: localhost:5060
User-Agent: xmlrpclib.py/1.0.1 (by www.pythonware.com)
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: 112

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<methodCall>
]]><emphasis><![CDATA[<methodName>system.listMethods</methodName>]]></emphasis><![CDATA[
<params>
</params>
</methodCall>
]]>
		</programlisting>
		The name of the method to be called in this example is
		"listMethods". This is one of the introspection methods. &kamailio;
		will call <function>dispatch_rpc</function> function of xmlrpc
		module to handle the request. The function will parse the
		XML-RPC document, lookup <function>listMethods</function>
		function in the list of all export RPC functions, prepare the
		context for the function and execute it.
	    </para>
	</section>
	<section id="xmlrpc.implementation.replies">
	    <title>Replies</title>
	    <para>
		The module will always generate 200 OK. Other response codes
		and classes are reserved for &kamailio;. The status code of the
		XML-RPC reply, response code, and additional data will be
		encoded in the body of the reply. Failure replies do not
		contain any data, just the response code and reason phrase:
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:2464
Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))
Content-Length: 301

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<methodResponse>
]]><emphasis><![CDATA[
<fault>
<value><struct>
<member><name>faultCode</name>
<value><i4>501</i4></value></member>
<member><name>faultString</name>
<value><string>Method Not Implemented</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
</fault>
]]></emphasis><![CDATA[
</methodResponse>
]]>
		</programlisting>
		This particular reply indicates that there is no such RPC
		method available on the server.
	    </para>
	    <para>
		Success replies always contain at least one return value. In
		our case the simplest success replies contain single boolean
		with value 1:
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:4626
Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))
Content-Length: 150

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<methodResponse>
<params>
]]><emphasis><![CDATA[<param><value><boolean>1</boolean></value></param>]]></emphasis><![CDATA[
</params>
</methodResponse>
]]>
		</programlisting>
		This is exactly how the reply looks like when an RPC function
		does not add any data to the reply set.
	    </para>
	    <para>
		If an RPC function adds just a single item (it calls
		<function>add</function> once
		with just one character in the formatting string) then the data
		will be converted to XML-RPC representation according to the
		rules described in
		<ulink url='http://sip-router.org/docbook/sip-router/branch/master/rpc/ser_rpc.html#rpc.data_types'>
		&kamailio; RPC Type Conversion</ulink> and
		the reply will contain just the single value:
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:3793
Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))
Content-Length: 216

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<methodResponse>
<params>
]]><emphasis><![CDATA[<param><value><string>Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))</string></value></param>]]></emphasis><![CDATA[
</params>
</methodResponse>
]]>
		</programlisting>
	    </para>
	    <para>
		If an RPC function adds more than one data items to the result
		set then the module will return an array containing all the
		data items:
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP 127.0.0.1:2932
Server: Sip EXpress router (0.10.99-janakj_experimental (i386/linux))
Content-Length: 276

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<methodResponse>
<params>
<param><value>]]><emphasis><![CDATA[<array><data>
<value><string>./ser</string></value>
<value><string>-f</string></value>
<value><string>ser.cfg</string></value>
</data></array>]]></emphasis><![CDATA[</value></param>
</params>
</methodResponse>
]]>
		</programlisting>
		This is probably the most common scenario.
	    </para>
	</section>
	<section id="xmlrpc.implementation.type_conversion">
	    <title>Type Conversion</title>
	    <para>
		The data types of the RPC API are converted to the data types
		of XML-RPC and vice versa. <xref
		linkend="tab.type_conversion"/> shows for each RPC API data
		type corresponding XML-RPC data type.
		<table id="tab.type_conversion">
		    <title>Data Type Conversion</title>
		    <tgroup cols="3">
			<tbody>
			    <row>
				<entry>RPC API</entry>
				<entry>XML-RPC</entry>
				<entry>RPC Example</entry>
				<entry>XML-RPC Example</entry>
			    </row>
			    <row>
				<entry>Integer</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<i4></i4>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
				<entry>rpc->add("d", 42)</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<i4>42</i4>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
			    </row>
			    <row>
				<entry>Float</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<double></double>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
				<entry>rpc->add("f", -12.214)</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<double>-12.214</double>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
			    </row>
			    <row>
				<entry>String</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<string></string>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
				<entry>rpc->add("s","Don't panic")</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<string>Don't panic</string>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
			    </row>
			    <row>
				<entry>Struct</entry>
				<entry>
				    <markup role="xmlrpc">
					<![CDATA[
					<struct></struct>
					]]>
				    </markup>
				</entry>
				<entry>rpc->struct_add(handle,"sd","param1",42,"param2",-12.214)</entry>
				<entry>
				    <programlisting>
<![CDATA[
<struct>
  <member>
    <name>param1</name>
    <value>
      <i4>42</i4>
    </value>
  </member>
  <member>
    <name>param2</name>
    <value>
      <double>-12.214</i4>
    </value>
  </member>
</struct>
]]>
				    </programlisting>
				</entry>
			    </row>
			</tbody>
		    </tgroup>
		</table>
	    </para>
	</section>
	<section id="xmlrpc.implementation.limitations">
	    <title>Limitations</title>
	    <para>
		&kamailio; xmlrpc modules does not implement all data types allowed in
		XML-RPC. As well it does not implement arrays and nested
		structures. This simplification is a feature, not bug. In our
		case the XML-RPC interface will be used mainly for management
		purposes and we do not need all the bells and whistles of
		XML-RPC. Parsing and interpreting nested structures is
		complex and we try to avoid it.
	    </para>
	</section>
	<section id="xmlrpc.interoperability_problems">
	    <title>Interoperability Problems</title>
	    <para>
		Due to a bug in Python xmlrpclib there is an interoperability 
		problem with basic clients using it: by default an xmlrpclib client 
		expects the server to immediately close the connection after answering
		and if the server does not close the connections the xmlrpclib client
		will wait forever.
		</para>
		<para>
		There are 2 ways to work around this problem: write a "fixed"
		Transport class and initialize xmlpclib using it (recommended) or
		make ser close the tcp connection after each request.
		</para>
		<para>
		The <ulink url='http://git.sip-router.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=sip-router;a=blob;f=modules/xmlrpc/examples/xmlrpc_test.py'>
		examples/xmlrpc_test.py
		</ulink> provides a very simple example of using xmlrpclib with a
		Transport class that works.
		</para>
		<para>
		For the second solution (force closing tcp connections after answering)
		the XMLRPC route should have a <function>set_reply_close()</function>
		command before <function>dispatch_rpc()</function>.
		<function>set_reply_no_connect()</function> is also recommended
		(avoid trying to open tcp connection to xmlrpc clients that closed it).
		Alternatively ending the XMLRPC route with return -1, exit -1 or
		drop -1 can also be used, but note that this will not work for 
		async rpcs (it will close the connection immeidately and not on the
		async response).
		<example>
		<programlisting>
<![CDATA[
route[XMLRPC]{
	# close connection only for xmlrpclib user agents
	if search("^User-Agent:.*xmlrpclib"))
		set_reply_close();
	set_reply_no_connect(); # optional
	dispatch_rpc();
}
]]>
		</programlisting>
		</example>
		</para>
	    <para>
		Another common problem is CRLF handling. According to the xml spec
		CR ('\r') must be escaped (to &amp;#xD;) or they will be "normalized"
		when parsing the xml document. However some xmlrpc clients do not
		follow this rule (e.g. clients based on the python or php xmlrpclib)
		and send CRLF unescaped. A possible workaround is to enable
		automatic LFLF to CRLF conversion (using the
		<varname>double_lf_to_crlf</varname> modules parameter) and replace
		CRLF with LFLF in the client queries.
		</para>
	</section>
    </section>

	<section id="xmlrpc.client_examples">
	<title>Client Examples</title>
	<!-- TODO:
	    implement clients in various languages 
	- pros, cons 
	- How failures
	    are mapped to XMLRPC 
	- How success replies are mapped 
	- How data
	    types of the API are mapped to XMLRPC elements 
	- 200 OK with no
	    data transformed to one value - True
	-->
	<para>
	<itemizedlist>
		<listitem><para>
			<ulink url='http://git.sip-router.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=sip-router;a=blob;f=modules/xmlrpc/examples/xmlrpc_test.pl'>
			<emphasis>examples/xmlrpc_test.pl</emphasis>
			</ulink> (basic perl application that builds and sends an
			<emphasis>XMLRPC</emphasis> request from its commandline
			parameters).
		</para></listitem>
		<listitem><para>
			<ulink url='http://git.sip-router.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=sip-router;a=blob;f=modules/xmlrpc/examples/xmlrpc_test.py'>
			<emphasis>examples/xmlrpc_test.py</emphasis>
			</ulink> (basic python application that builds and sends an
			<emphasis>XMLRPC</emphasis> request from its commandline
			parameters).
		</para></listitem>
		<listitem><para>
			<ulink url='http://git.sip-router.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=ser;a=tree;f=ser_ctl'>
			<emphasis>ser_ctl</emphasis>
			</ulink>
			(complex python application that 
			uses the <emphasis>XML-RPC</emphasis> interface implemented by the
			<emphasis>xmlrpc</emphasis> module).
		</para></listitem>
		<listitem><para>
			<ulink uri='http://www.iptel.org/serweb'>
			<emphasis>serweb</emphasis>
			</ulink>
			(php application that can use
			the <emphasis>XML-RPC</emphasis> interface to call ser 
			functions).
		</para></listitem>
	</itemizedlist>
	</para>
    </section>

	<xi:include href="xmlrpc_admin.xml"/>

</book>