burlap

Burlap is a simple XML-based protocol for connecting web services. The com.caucho.burlap.client and com.caucho.burlap.server packages do not require any other Resin classes, so can be used in smaller clients, like applets.

Because Burlap is a small protocol, J2ME devices like cell-phones can use it to connect to Resin servers. Because it's powerful, it can be used for EJB services.

Using a Burlap service from a Java client is like calling a method. The BurlapProxyFactory creates proxies which act like normal Java objects, with possibility that the method might throw a protocol exception if the remote connection fails. Using BurlapProxyFactory requires JDK 1.3.

Each service will have a normal Java interface describing the service. The trivial hello, world example just returns a string. Because the Burlap services support Java serialization, any Java type can be used.

package burlap.test;

public interface Basic {
  public String hello();
}

The following is an example of a standalone Burlap client. The client creates a BurlapProxyFactory. The client uses the factory to create client stubs with the given target URL and a Java interface for the API. The returned object is a stub implementing the API.

package burlap.test;

import java.net.URL;

import com.caucho.burlap.client.BurlapProxyFactory;

public class BasicClient {
  public static void main(String []args)
    throws Exception
  {
    URL url = new URL("http://www.caucho.com/burlap/test/basic");

    BurlapProxyFactory factory = new BurlapProxyFactory();
    Basic basic = (Basic) factory.create(Basic.class, url);

    System.out.println("Hello: " + basic.hello());
  }
}

There are no more complications to using the client. The service can add methods and use any Java type for parameters and results.

While most Burlap services will use Resin-CMP or Resin-EJB, to take advantage of the benefits of EJB, the Burlap library makes it possible to write services by extending BurlapServlet.

Any public method is treated as a service method. So adding new methods is as easy as writing a normal Java class.

Because the service is implemented as a Servlet, it can use all the familiar servlet data in the ServletContext, just like a normal servlet.

package burlap.test;

import com.caucho.burlap.server.BurlapServlet;

public class BasicService extends BurlapServlet implements Basic {
  public String hello()
  {
    return "Hello, world";
  }
}

Burlap can be used for even small Java devices. The following classes from com.caucho.burlap.client can be extracted into a J2ME jar:

• MicroBurlapInput
• MicroBurlapOutput
• BurlapRemote
• BurlapServiceException
• BurlapProtocolException

The following example shows the code for using a cell phone as a client. It's a bit more complicated than using the proxy, since the client is responsible for creating the connection and writing the data.

import javax.microedition.io.Connector;
import javax.microedition.io.HttpConnection;

...

MicroBurlapInput in = new MicroBurlapInput();

String url = "http://www.caucho.com/burlap/test/basic";

HttpConnection c = (HttpConnection) Connector.open(url);

c.setRequestMethod(HttpConnection.POST);

OutputStream os = c.openOutputStream();
MicroBurlapOutput out = new MicroBurlapOutput(os);

out.call("hello", null);

os.flush();

is = c.openInputStream();

MicroBurlapInput in = new MicroBurlapInput(is);
Object value = in.readReply(null);

The Burlap classes can be used for serialization and deserialization.

Object obj = ...;

OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream("test.xml");
BurlapOutput out = new BurlapOutput(os);

out.writeObject(obj);
os.close();

InputStream is = new FileInputStream("test.xml");
BurlapInput in = new BurlapInput(is);

Object obj = in.readObject(null);
is.close();