[phpxmlrpc] Converting xmlrpcval object array to PHP object array abstractly or dynamically?

Gaetano Giunta giunta.gaetano at gmail.com
Sun Jun 16 16:49:01 EDT 2013


Nice to see someone still using phpxmlrpc. Old tech never dies! :-)

On a more serious note:

- the phpxmlrpc lib has functions which do recursive encoding/decoding. they are even in the manual ;-)

- the simplest way to be able to serve calls with unknown number of parameters is to actually only use 1 parameter, of type "array". In the array then the 
elements will be the real parameters for the actual call on the php side. Of course you loose the param/type validation done for you by the lib, and might have 
to rewrite some on your own

- if you feel adventurous, with some introspection magic you could even use a struct as top-level param and allow named-parameters over xmlrpc become 
positional-parameters for the php calls. iirc there is some sample code in the lib doing that - used by the debugger

- the main limitation to this scheme is that you are bound not to pass around php objects but only php arrays/hashes. This is generally a good idea, security-wise

- if you use php_xmlrpc on both sides of the tunnel, there even is an option for the phpxmlrpc_encode and _decode calls which allows embedding in the produced 
xml some slightly-out-of-band information.
This allows the lib to tell apart php hashes from php objects. You will then be able to basically map ANY php function to its remote counterpart - except for 
the parameters which reference resources (eg a db connection can not be serialized across the net) or the objects with circular references (take care!)

Do not hesitate to come back if there's anything I said which is not crystal clear

bye
Gaetano

David Luu wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Don't know if anyone has asked this before, since the mailing list archive spans a long time, it's just easier for me to re-ask if asked before.
>
> I'm working on a XML-RPC service that reflects any given PHP class. One XML-RPC method takes any number of arguments from the XML-RPC request/call.
>
> In the XML-RPC method, I then store all the arguments into a PHP array of xmlrpcvals, via iterating over xmlrpcmsg->getParam(n) for the total # of params 
> based on getNumParams().
>
> I would then like to dynamically/abstractly handle converting each element of that xmlrpcval array into its PHP object equivalent, where the element may be a 
> scalar, array, or struct (generally scalar or array). And that array may contain yet more scalars, arrays, or structs (though for simple case most likely 
> scalars).
>
> How might I recursively and/or iteratively parse the xmlrpcval array into it's PHP equivalent in a way that handles all cases? Since we don't know until 
> runtime (i.e. when XML-RPC call is made) what the exact arguments are (type and number of them).
>
> Has anyone done something similar before? I've done similar for other language platforms but those libraries did more implicit conversion handling for me, so 
> I didn't have to go into this level of detail as with this PHP library.
>
> I'm planning to try to work something out when I have time, and in the meantime, handle the simple case for now where the array will always be of scalars (not 
> array within array), and ignore structs. And wanted to see what feedback/tips I can get from the community, hence this email.
>
> Regards,
> David
>
>
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