Python Module “xmlrpclib”

  • Posted by Mike Naberezny in Python

    Whether you are a fan of Python or not, Python’s bundled module xmlrpclib from PythonWare is extremely useful for testing an XML-RPC server when used from the Python interactive shell. Since xmlrpclib is bundled with the standard Python 2.3 distribution, no additional installation is required. Python itself comes preinstalled on most Linux distributions and Mac OS X. Start the Python shell, and enter these commands:

    import xmlrpclib
server = xmlrpclib.Server('http://your/server/url')

    Now, you can interactively test the methods of your XML-RPC server from the Python shell. As an example, most XML-RPC server libraries include support for the system.listMethods() and system.methodSignature() methods. To list all of the available methods on the remote server from Python, simply enter:

    server.system.listMethods()

    The methods will be returned as a Python list and printed to stdout. Calling XML-RPC methods really couldn’t be any simpler. To get the signature of a method, enter:

    server.system.methodSignature('method_name')

    The conversion of data types between Python and XML-RPC is automatically performed by the Server object. You can test any of your remote server’s methods as shown above. The Server object also provides a verbose mode that will display the raw XML-RPC transactions with the server for troubleshooting. To enable verbose mode, instantiate the Server like this:

    server = xmlrpclib.Server('http://your/server/url', verbose=True)

    Interactively testing your server API like this can greatly reduce your debugging time. It is also very handy for getting to know your way around the APIs of other XML-RPC servers, such as WordPress or Flickr.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Python.