JSON RPC is a protocol, which which uses the JSON data format to call procedures on a remote server over the network.
Cxxtools has implementations for JSON RPC clients and and servers. Cxxtools
makes it really easy to call remote JSON RPC procedures or to implement
procedures, which can be called over the network.
JSON RPC can be used raw or over a http frame. Both variants are implemented in
cxxtools.
We start with a simple JSON RPC server, which makes a function available to a remote side. The example uses JSON RPC without HTTP.
First implement the functions, which should be callable:
double add(double a1, double a2)
{
return a1 + a2;
}
double sub(double a1, double a2)
{
return a1 - a2;
}
In our main function we make the functions available over the network:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
try
{
// Define a event loop
cxxtools::EventLoop loop;
// Define a json rpc server and listen on port 7077 (on all interfaces):
cxxtools::json::RpcServer jsonServer(loop, 7077);
// register the methods
jsonServer.registerFunction("add", add);
jsonServer.registerFunction("sub", sub);
// and run our server
loop.run();
}
catch (const std::exception& e)
{
std::cerr << e.what() << std::endl;
}
}
To make the example complete we need the headers:
#include <cxxtools/eventloop.h>
#include <cxxtools/json/rpcserver.h>
This was easy. Note that the registerFunction method of the server is a
template function, which generates all the stuff needed to convert the
parameters from json to the needed types and the result back to json.
The parameters and return values must have a cxxtools serialization and deserialization operator. All standard types including container classes in the std namespace have one and it is easy to implement one for own types.
See the serialization howto for details.
The server is multithreaded and starts by default 5 threads at startup.
Next we want to implement a client, which calls our methods on the server. It is even simpler than the server:
// Define client class with a empty IP, which means localhost and a port
cxxtools::json::RpcClient client("", 7077);
// Define the remote procedure with 3 template parameters. The first is
// always the return type and the rest are the types of the parameters.
cxxtools::RemoteProcedure<double, double, double> add(client, "add");
// and call the procedure:
double result = add(17, 4);
std::cout << "result=" << result << std::endl;
Very simple. Again cxxtools uses template magic in cxxtools::RemoteProcedure
to generate all the serialization and deserialization stuff we need.
To make the example complete we need the headers:
#include <cxxtools/remoteprocedure.h>
#include <cxxtools/json/rpcclient.h>
There were 2 types of exceptions, which can happen here. Either purely technical exceptions like I/O errors when the server is not reachable or exceptions thrown by the procedure on the server side.
Technical exceptions are handled like always in cxxtools. They are just
thrown. There is nothing special here.
Exceptions thrown by the server procedure are sent to the client. The client
then throws the exception when the result is requested. So it behaves like
a local function call. The only difference is, that the actual exception type is
lost. The exception is always derived from cxxtools::RemoteException.
Note that all exceptions thrown in cxxtools are derived from std::exception.
So as shown in the example it is sufficient to catch just std::exception to
catch all exceptions of the remote procedure.
The call to the add procedure is done synchronous, that means, that the call
add(17, 4) blocks until the json rpc call returns from the server. Sometimes
it would be nice, if we can run multiple rpc calls in parallel. Luckily
cxxtools supports that.
There are 2 options doing that. The most flexible but also more difficult way to do it, is to run the procedure in a event loop. For that we have to register callbacks which inform the client, when the call is finished. But this is not in scope of this howto.
Lets look at the simpler one. We just want initiate multiple calls and wait until all have finished.
The following example initiate calls to the add and sub methods and waits
until the procedures return.
// We need a selector, which is a abstraction of poll(2) but easier to use
cxxtools::Selector selector;
// One client can only run one procedure at a time so to run 2 in parallel
// we need 2 clients. We pass the selector as the first argument to the
// client:
cxxtools::json::RpcClient jsonClientAdd(selector, "", 7077);
cxxtools::json::RpcClient jsonClientSub(selector, "", 7077);
// We also need remote procedures for both methods:
cxxtools::RemoteProcedure<double, double, double> add(jsonClientAdd, "add");
cxxtools::RemoteProcedure<double, double, double> sub(jsonClientSub, "sub");
// Initiate the calls; note that the calls are not sent to the server until
// we start the selector:
add.begin(17, 4);
sub.begin(17, 4);
// Call wait on the selector until the add method is finished.
// note that since both procedures run in the same selector, the sub is also
// executed.
while (add.activeProcedure() != 0)
selector.wait();
std::cout << "add returns " << add.result() << std::endl;
// Wait until sub is also finished. It may be finished immediately since the
// selector was run already.
while (sub.activeProcedure() != 0)
selector.wait();
std::cout << "sub returns " << sub.result() << std::endl;
We need additionally the header:
#include <cxxtools/selector.h>
The remote procedures may be located also on different servers. Also any number of clients can be executed in parallel.
There is a even shorter way to write that in cxxtools. Each remote procedure
has a method end() which executes the selector until the remote procedure
finishes and returns the result of the procedure. So calling add.end() will
block until the add procedure is finished.
Note that since add.end() just processes the I/O events by calling wait on the
selector it runs actually the sub procedure also. It may well be, that sub
is finished before add and hence fully executed by add.end(). Calling
sub.end() later will then just return the result.
So instead of the while loop and fetching the result with the result method we
can just write:
add.begin(17, 4);
sub.begin(17, 4);
std::cout << "add returns " << add.end() << std::endl;
std::cout << "sub returns " << sub.end() << std::endl;
Note that even when add.end() executes sub also, exceptions thrown by the
sub procedure on the server side are thrown always when calling sub.end().
What may still happen is, that add.end() throws I/O errors which were caused
by sub.
As noted before cxxtools supports JSON RPC raw as well as over http. We change
our server to use http.
// Define a event loop
cxxtools::EventLoop loop;
// Define a http server first
cxxtools::http::Server httpServer(loop, 8077);
// for json rpc over http we need a service object
cxxtools::json::HttpService service;
// we register our functions
service.registerFunction("add", add);
service.registerFunction("sub", sub);
// ... and register the service under a url
httpServer.addService("/jsonrpc", service);
// and run our server
loop.run();
To make the example complete we need the headers:
#include <cxxtools/eventloop.h>
#include <cxxtools/http/server.h>
#include <cxxtools/json/httpservice.h>
We already see, that http gives us one more level. We can register different services under different urls. They act like a namespace in json rpc.
The http server also supports other types of services. We can for example run a xmlrpc service on the very same http server under a different url. Note that xmlrpc is supported by cxxtools also.
If you want to use xmlrpc, you can just replace json with xmlrpc in the above example and it uses a different protocol. Nothing else need to be changed.
To call the json rpc procedure over http we need a change on our client side as well. Here is the example:
// Define client class with a empty IP, which means localhost and a port.
cxxtools::json::HttpClient client("", 7077, "/jsonrpc");
// The remote procedure class is defined like before.
cxxtools::RemoteProcedure<double, double, double> add(client, "add");
// and neither the call has changed in any way:
double result = add(17, 4);
std::cout << "result=" << result << std::endl;
To make the example complete we need one additional header:
#include <cxxtools/json/httpclient.h>
Like the server the client also supports xmlrpc. Just replace again json with xmlrpc and the protocol of the client is changed.
We already mentioned, that the serialization framework of cxxtools is used. We will look here at a simple example, how to make a struct usable in rpc.
So this is our struct, we want to use as a parameter or return value in our RPC function:
struct MyData
{
double someValue;
bool aFlag;
std::vector<int> moreValues;
};
We need 2 operators:
void operator<<= (cxxtools::SerializationInfo& si, const MyData& myData)
{
si.addMember("someValue") <<= myData.someValue;
si.addMember("aFlag") <<= myData.aFlag;
si.addMember("moreValues") <<= myData.moreValues;
}
void operator>>= (const cxxtools::SerializationInfo& si, MyData& myData)
{
si.getMember("someValue") >>= myData.someValue;
si.getMember("aFlag") >>= myData.aFlag;
si.getMember("moreValues") >>= myData.moreValues;
}
To define the operators a header is needed:
#include <cxxtools/serializationinfo.h>
And we are done. Now we can use the structure just like any other type.
Note that in C++ we usually have more than one source file and structures are defined in separate headers. The operators must then either be defined in the header as inline functions or just declared in the header and defined in a cpp class, which is compiled separately.
For data we usually use classes, with private members. A good choice is to declare the operators as friends, so that they can easily access the private members.