Java RPC Internet enable RPC applications ^{in minutes}

Online demo with rstatd applet^New

Wanted to move your applications to the internet? With Netbula JavaRPC, you can develop PURE JAVA RPC clients and servers, using TCP, UDP or HTTP protocols.

Porting existing ONC(Sun) RPC applications to Java is very easy, just compile the *.x files with jrpcgen, and you have RPC clients in Java instantly. If you want to create RPC servers in Java, it is simple: just override the server implementation functions generated by jrpcgen.

What is in the JavaRPC toolkit

All you need to do RPC in Java:

1. The netbula.ORPC Java class package in a jar file (lib/orpc.jar) . This package contains Java RPC library classes such as ClientUDP, ClientTCP, ClientHTTP, Pmap and XDR, which are the basic elements for ONC RPC. This package uses 100% JDK1.1 standard functions. Every Java RPC application needs to import classes in this package.


2. Documentation (doc/)  netbula.ORPC API documentation.


3. The Netbula jrpcgen IDL compiler (bin/jrpcgen.exe) This is a straight port of the original rpcgen. This application compiles *.x files into Java classes, which utilize the netbula.ORPC package to perform RPC functions.


4. RPCINFO in Java (Screen shot)
   RPCINFO is a utility for quering registered RPC services. RPCInfo closely resembles the RPCInfo for Win32, which supports LIST, PING and EXPLORE functions.
   
5. HTTP RPC Servlets and CGI script.
   With Netbula JavaRPC, there are two ways to call RPC with HTTP protocol. You can
   1) use the RpcProxyServlet servlet or a CGI program (C source code provided) which serves as a generic RPC gateway to the real RPC server (external) running on a server machine.
   2) create a true RPC servlet by extending the RpcSvcServlet class, the server implementation resides in the servlet itself (inproc).

   Java Servlet is an efficient and elegant solution that can replace CGI.

6. Extensive set of sample programs
   See the README.txt file on how to build and run the samples.
   
   You need to download the Netbula ONC RPC for Win32 if you wanted to develop ONC RPC server/client on Win32 in C language. The ONC RPC For Win32 package contains the msg and quote server/client sample programs.

• api: demos the RPC API functions, such as rmtcall, broadcast call, etc.
• msg: the Msg server/client/servlet/applet example. See Msg applet in action.
• cservs: Msg and types client/server C source and makefile for UNIX.
• rpcinfo: simple command line version of rpcinfo in Java
• pmapsvc: portmapper in Java
• quote: the Java version quote server/client.
• rstat3: Java client to rstatd, obtaining remote system performance info.
• rusers: Java client to rusersd, obtaining info on logged in users.
• types: a comprehensive test to send a complex data structure (union, linked list, array, variable length array, pointer, etc) back and forth.
• http: call RPC thru ClientHTTP onto the RpcProxyServlet servlet.
• bench: test programs that compare RMI and JavaRPC performance
• applet.quote: use the quote client in an applet
  

How to use the toolkit

1. Add the orpc.jar file to the CLASSPATH
   For example, on the windows command prompt, this can be done by set
   CLASSPATH= %CLASSPATH%;d:\orpcdev\lib\orpc.jar
   similar command can be used for UNIX.
    
2. Compile *.x file using jrpcgen
   %jrpcgen quote.x
   This will generate Java source code for the XDR and client/server stub classes for the quote server.
   
   jrpcgen is  written in C, the package contains the executable built for Win32, binaries for other platforms such as SunOS are available on request.
   Note although jrpcgen is written in C, all the RPC code is pure Java. By reusing the existing C code for rpcgen, we can be sure that the jrpcgen is fully compatible with rpcgen in terms of interpreting the syntax and semantics of the *.x files, the difference is only in the code generation phase.
    
3. Use the generated client/server classes in step 2) (see samples )
   For instance, for RPC program quote version 2, the generated class name is quote_2.

JavaRPC Advantages

• Standard compliant (RFC 1831, RFC 1832)
• High performance
• Low cost. ONC RPC is the de facto standard on UNIX, it is universally available.
• Object oriented. Much easier to program than the C version.
• Win32 DLL and library built with VisualCafe available for better performance. With this library, you can compile Java RPC app into EXE program using VisualCafe.

Conditions for using the demo toolkit

You can download and evaluate the toolkit for 30 days.

The toolkit contains trade secrets of and materials copyrighted by Netbula LLC. You must NOT deassemble or decompile any of the compiled components such as orpc.jar and jrpcgen.exe, or otherwise reverse engineer them . You may not redistribute the toolkit to anyone without Netbula's written permission. All software contained in the demo will expire after a fixed date.

Licenses

• Netbula JavaRPC Development License: allows you to use the toolkit to develop Java RPC applications. 
• JavaRPC Limited Distribution License: allows you to distribute the netbula.ORPC package (orpc.jar) to end-user machines.
  

Disclaimer: Netbula JavaRPC is a direct port of Sun ONC RPC independently by Netbula. It does not contain code or code derived from any other RPC for Java products from other company or individual.