Provided by: librpc-xml-perl_0.77-1_all bug

NAME

       make_method - Turn Perl code into an XML description for RPC::XML::Server

SYNOPSIS

           make_method --name=system.identification --helptext='System ID string'
               --signature=string --code=ident.pl --output=ident.xpl

           make_method --base=methods/identification

DESCRIPTION

       This is a simple tool to create the XML descriptive files for specifying methods to be
       published by an RPC::XML::Server-based server.

       If a server is written such that the methods it exports (or publishes) are a part of the
       running code, then there is no need for this tool. However, in cases where the server may
       be separate and distinct from the code (such as an Apache-based RPC server), specifying
       the routines and filling in the supporting information can be cumbersome.

       One solution that the RPC::XML::Server package offers is the means to load publishable
       code from an external file. The file is in a simple XML dialect that clearly delinates the
       externally-visible name, the method signatures, the help text and the code itself. These
       files may be created manually, or this tool may be used as an aide.

REQUIRED ARGUMENTS

       There are no required arguments, but if there are not sufficient options passed you will
       be told by an error message.

OPTIONS

       The tool recognizes the following options:

       --help
           Prints a short summary of the options.

       --name=STRING
           Specifies the published name of the method being encoded. This is the name by which it
           will be visible to clients of the server.

       --namespace=STRING
           Specifies a namespace that the code of the method will be evaluated in, when the XPL
           file is loaded by a server instance.

       --type=STRING
           Specify the type for the resulting file. "Type" here refers to whether the container
           tag used in the resulting XML will specify a procedure or a method. The default is
           method. The string is treated case-independant, and only the first character ("m" or
           "p") is actually regarded.

       --version=STRING
           Specify a version stamp for the code routine.

       --hidden
           If this is passe, the resulting file will include a tag that tells the server daemon
           to not make the routine visible through any introspection interfaces.

       --signature=STRING [ --signature=STRING ... ]
           Specify one or more signatures for the method. Signatures should be the type names as
           laid out in the documentation in RPC::XML, with the elements separated by a colon. You
           may also separate them with spaces, if you quote the argument. This option may be
           specified more than once, as some methods may have several signatures.

       --helptext=STRING
           Specify the help text for the method as a simple string on the command line.  Not
           suited for terribly long help strings.

       --helpfile=FILE
           Read the help text for the method from the file specified.

       --code=FILE
           Read the actual code for the routine from the file specified. If this option is not
           given, the code is read from the standard input file descriptor.

       --output=FILE
           Write the resulting XML representation to the specified file. If this option is not
           given, then the output goes to the standard output file descriptor.

       --base=NAME
           This is a special, "all-in-one" option. If passed, all other options are ignored.

           The value is used as the base element for reading information from a file named
           BASE.base. This file will contain specification of the name, version, hidden status,
           signatures and other method information. Each line of the file should look like one of
           the following:

           Name: STRING
               Specify the name of the routine being published. If this line does not appear,
               then the value of the --base argument with all directory elements removed will be
               used.

           Version: STRING
               Provide a version stamp for the function. If no line matching this pattern is
               present, no version tag will be written.

           Hidden: STRING
               If present, STRING should be either "yes" or "no" (case not important).  If it is
               "yes", then the method is marked to be hidden from any introspection API.

           Signature: STRING
               This line may appear more than once, and is treated cumulatively. Other options
               override previous values if they appear more than once. The portion following the
               "Signature:" part is taken to be a published signature for the method, with
               elements separated by whitespace. Each method must have at least one signature, so
               a lack of any will cause an error.

           Helpfile: STRING
               Specifies the file from which to read the help text. It is not an error if no help
               text is specified.

           Codefile: STRING
               Specifies the file from which to read the code. Code is assumed to be Perl, and
               will be tagged as such in the resulting file.

           Codefile[lang]: string
               Specifies the file from which to read code, while also identifying the language
               that the code is in. This allows for the creation of a XPL file that includes
               multiple language implementations of the given method or procedure.

           Any other lines than the above patterns are ignored.

           If no code has been read, then the tool will exit with an error message.

           The output is written to BASE.xpl, preserving the path information so that the
           resulting file is right alongside the source files. This allows constructs such as:

               make_method --base=methods/introspection

FILE FORMAT AND DTD

       The file format for these published routines is a very simple XML dialect.  This is less
       due to XML being an ideal format than it is the availability of the parser, given that the
       RPC::XML::Server class will already have the parser code in core. Writing a completely new
       format would not have gained anything.

       The Document Type Declaration for the format can be summarized by:

           <!ELEMENT  proceduredef (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
                                    signature+, help?, code)>
           <!ELEMENT  methoddef  (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
                                  signature+, help?, code)>
           <!ELEMENT  functiondef (name, namespace?, version?, hidden?,
                                   signature+, help?, code)>
           <!ELEMENT  name       (#PCDATA)>
           <!ELEMENT  namespace  (#PCDATA)>
           <!ELEMENT  version    (#PCDATA)>
           <!ELEMENT  hidden     EMPTY>
           <!ELEMENT  signature  (#PCDATA)>
           <!ELEMENT  help       (#PCDATA)>
           <!ELEMENT  code       (#PCDATA)>
           <!ATTLIST  code       language (#PCDATA)>

       The file "rpc-method.dtd" that comes with the distribution has some commentary in addition
       to the actual specification.

       A file is (for now) limited to one definition. This is started by the one of the opening
       tags "<methoddef>", "<functiondef>" or "<proceduredef>". This is followed by exactly one
       "<name>" container specifying the method name, an optional version stamp, an optional
       hide-from-introspection flag, one or more "<signature>" containers specifying signatures,
       an optional "<help>" container with the help text, then the "<code>" container with the
       actual program code. All text should use entity encoding for the symbols:

           & C<&amp;> (ampersand)
           E<lt> C<&lt;>  (less-than)
           E<gt> C<&gt;>  (greater-than)

       The parsing process within the server class will decode the entities. To make things
       easier, the tool scans all text elements and encodes the above entities before writing the
       file.

   The Specification of Code
       This is not "Programming 101", nor is it "Perl for the Somewhat Dim".  The code that is
       passed in via one of the "*.xpl" files gets passed to "eval" with next to no modification
       (see below). Thus, badly-written or malicious code can very well wreak havoc on your
       server. This is not the fault of the server code. The price of the flexibility this system
       offers is the responsibility on the part of the developer to ensure that the code is
       tested and safe.

       Code itself is treated as verbatim as possible. Some edits may occur on the server-side,
       as it make the code suitable for creating an anonymous subroutine from. The make_method
       tool will attempt to use a "CDATA" section to embed the code within the XML document, so
       that there is no need to encode entities or such. This allows for the resulting *.xpl
       files to be syntax-testable with "perl -cx". You can aid this by ensuring that the code
       does not contain either of the two following character sequences:

           ]]>

           __DATA__

       The first is the "CDATA" terminator. If it occurs naturally in the code, it would trigger
       the end-of-section in the parser. The second is the familiar Perl token, which is inserted
       so that the remainder of the XML document does not clutter up the Perl parser.

EXAMPLES

       The RPC::XML distribution comes with a number of default methods in a subdirectory called
       (cryptically enough) "methods". Each of these is expressed as a set of ("*.base",
       "*.code", "*.help") files. The Makefile.PL file configures the resulting Makefile such
       that these are used to create "*.xpl" files using this tool, and then install them.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Most problems come out in the form of error messages followed by an abrupt exit.

EXIT STATUS

       The tool exits with a status of 0 upon success, and 255 otherwise.

CAVEATS

       I don't much like this approach to specifying the methods, but I liked my other ideas even
       less.

BUGS

       Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-rpc-xml at rt.cpan.org", or through the
       web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=RPC-XML
       <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=RPC-XML>. I will be notified, and then
       you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

       •   RT: CPAN's request tracker

           http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=RPC-XML
           <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=RPC-XML>

       •   AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

           http://annocpan.org/dist/RPC-XML <http://annocpan.org/dist/RPC-XML>

       •   CPAN Ratings

           http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/RPC-XML <http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/RPC-XML>

       •   Search CPAN

           http://search.cpan.org/dist/RPC-XML <http://search.cpan.org/dist/RPC-XML>

       •   Source code on GitHub

           http://github.com/rjray/rpc-xml <http://github.com/rjray/rpc-xml>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

       This module and the code within are released under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0
       (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license-2.0.php). This code may be
       redistributed under either the Artistic License or the GNU Lesser General Public License
       (LGPL) version 2.1 (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.php).

SEE ALSO

       RPC::XML, RPC::XML::Server

CREDITS

       The XML-RPC standard is Copyright (c) 1998-2001, UserLand Software, Inc.  See
       <http://www.xmlrpc.com> for more information about the XML-RPC specification.

AUTHOR

       Randy J. Ray <rjray@blackperl.com>