# Frontier::Client - phpMan

## NAME
    [Frontier::Client] - issue Frontier XML RPC requests to a server

## SYNOPSIS
     use [Frontier::Client];

     $server = [Frontier::Client]->new( I<OPTIONS> );

     $result = $server->call($method, @args);

     $boolean = $server->boolean($value);
     $date_time = $server->date_time($value);
     $base64 = $server->base64($value);

     $value = $boolean->value;
     $value = $date_time->value;
     $value = $base64->value;

## DESCRIPTION
    *[Frontier::Client]* is an XML-RPC client over HTTP. *[Frontier::Client]*
    instances are used to make calls to XML-RPC servers and as shortcuts for
    creating XML-RPC special data types.

## METHODS
    new( *OPTIONS* )
        Returns a new instance of *[Frontier::Client]* and associates it with
        an XML-RPC server at a URL. *OPTIONS* may be a list of key, value
        pairs or a hash containing the following parameters:

        url The URL of the server. This parameter is required. For example:

             $server = [Frontier::Client]->new( 'url' => '<http://betty.userland.com/RPC2>' );

        proxy
            A URL of a proxy to forward XML-RPC calls through.

        encoding
            The XML encoding to be specified in the XML declaration of
            outgoing RPC requests. Incoming results may have a different
            encoding specified; [XML::Parser] will convert incoming data to
            UTF-8. The default outgoing encoding is none, which uses XML
            1.0's default of UTF-8. For example:

             $server = [Frontier::Client]->new( 'url' => '<http://betty.userland.com/RPC2>',
                                              'encoding' => 'ISO-8859-1' );

        use_objects
            If set to a non-zero value will convert incoming <i4>, <float>,
            and <string> values to objects instead of scalars. See int(),
            float(), and string() below for more details.

        debug
            If set to a non-zero value will print the encoded XML request
            and the XML response received.

    call($method, @args)
        Forward a procedure call to the server, either returning the value
        returned by the procedure or failing with exception. `$method' is
        the name of the server method, and `@args' is a list of arguments to
        pass. Arguments may be Perl hashes, arrays, scalar values, or the
        XML-RPC special data types below.

    boolean( $value )
    date_time( $value )
    base64( $base64 )
        The methods `"boolean()"', `"date_time()"', and `"base64()"' create
        and return XML-RPC-specific datatypes that can be passed to
        `"call()"'. Results from servers may also contain these datatypes.
        The corresponding package names (for use with `"ref()"', for
        example) are `"[Frontier::RPC2::Boolean]"',
        `"[Frontier::RPC2::DateTime::ISO8601]"', and
        `"[Frontier::RPC2::Base64]"'.

        The value of boolean, date/time, and base64 data can be set or
        returned using the `"value()"' method. For example:

          # To set a value:
          $a_boolean->[value(1)];

          # To retrieve a value
          $base64 = $base64_xml_rpc_data->value();

        Note: `"base64()"' does *not* encode or decode base64 data for you,
        you must use [MIME::Base64] or similar module for that.

    int( 42 );
    float( 3.14159 );
    string( "Foo" );
        By default, you may pass ordinary Perl values (scalars) to be
        encoded. RPC2 automatically converts them to XML-RPC types if they
        look like an integer, float, or as a string. This assumption causes
        problems when you want to pass a string that looks like "0096", RPC2
        will convert that to an <i4> because it looks like an integer. With
        these methods, you could now create a string object like this:

          $part_num = $server->string("0096");

        and be confident that it will be passed as an XML-RPC string. You
        can change and retrieve values from objects using value() as
        described above.

## SEE ALSO
    [perl(1)], Frontier::[RPC2(3)]

    <<http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/xml/code/rpc.html>>

## AUTHOR
    Ken MacLeod <<ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us>>