The What

The xmlrpc module is a pure JavaScript XML-RPC server and client for node.js.

Pure JavaScript means that the XML parsing and XML building use pure JavaScript libraries, so no extra C dependencies or build requirements. The xmlrpc module can be used as an XML-RPC server, receiving method calls and responding with method responses, or as an XML-RPC client, making method calls and receiving method responses, or as both.

The How

To Install

npm install xmlrpc

To Use

The client-server.js in the example directory has an nicely commented example of using xmlrpc as an XML-RPC server and client (they even talk to each other!).

A brief example:

var xmlrpc = require('xmlrpc')

// Creates an XML-RPC server to listen to XML-RPC method calls
var server = xmlrpc.createServer({ host: 'localhost', port: 9090 })

// Handle method calls by listening for events with the method call name
server.on('anAction', function (err, params, callback) {
  console.log('Method call params for \'anAction\': ' + params)

  // ...perform an action...

  // Send a method response with a value
  callback(null, 'aResult')
})
console.log('XML-RPC server listening on port 9091')

// Waits briefly to give the XML-RPC server time to start up and start
// listening
setTimeout(function () {
  // Creates an XML-RPC client. Passes the host information on where to
  // make the XML-RPC calls.
  var client = xmlrpc.createClient({ host: 'localhost', port: 9090, path: '/'})

  // Sends a method call to the XML-RPC server
  client.methodCall('anAction', ['aParam'], function (error, value) {
    // Results of the method response
    console.log('Method response for \'anAction\': ' + value)
  })

}, 1000)

Output from the example:

XML-RPC server listening on port 9090
Method call params for 'anAction': aParam
Method response for 'anAction': aResult

To Test

As XML-RPC must be precise so there are an extensive set of test cases in the test directory. Vows is used for testing.

To run (from node-xmlrpc root directory):

vows --spec test/*.js

If submitting a bug fix, please update the appropriate test file too.

The License (MIT)

Released under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for the complete wording.