NAME

Net::RMI::Client - Perl client-side extension for Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

SYNOPSIS

use Net::RMI::Client;

# Initialize the client
@servers = qw(localhost);
$client = new Net::RMI::Client(@servers);

# Refresh it's function list.
$client->pollAllServers();

$result = $client->RM_someFunction(@someParameters));

DESCRIPTION

The client portion of Net::RMI, contains the methods neccessary to find and invoke remote methods. Remote methods can be invoked explicitly via the $client-RM_someFunction> or implicitly via a more subtly mechanism:

sub AUTOLOAD {
	my $function = $AUTOLOAD;
	$function =~ s/^.+::(.+)$/RM_$1/;
	return $client->$function(@_);
}

someUnusedFunctionName(@someParameters);

As the AUTOLOAD function will catch this attempt, and forward it to the Net::RMI::Client instance (in this example called $client).

METHODS

AUTOLOAD

This function looks for all functions called that begin with "RM_". It then attempt to invoke those methods remotely, by taking all text after the "RM_" and using it as the remote function name.

Parameters: none.
Returns: the results of the RMI.

new

The new method creates a new RMI client and defines its initial list of RMI method servers.

Parameters: a list of method servers.
Returns: a new instance.

addServer

Adds one or more method servers to the list of servers for this client.

Parameters: a list of method servers.
Returns: nothing.

addServerFunction

Adds a specific server, function name pair to the list of available remote methods for this client.

Parameters: a server name and port, function name, function's
	parameter list and return-type.
Returns: nothing.

getFunction

Gets a specific server, function name pair based on function name. If multiple servers provide a function with the same name, they are picked in round-robin fashion.

Parameters: the function name.
Returns: the method server's name and port, the function's
	parameter list and return-type.

refresh

An alias for pollAllServers.

(See Below.)

pollAllServers

Iterates over all method-servers for this client and retrieves the information about all functions available on those servers.

Parameters: none.
Returns: nothing.

pollServer

Retrieves all information, including function parameters and return-type, for all functions on a specific method-server.

Parameters: the method-server's name and port.
Returns: nothing.

SEE ALSO

Net::RMI, and Net::RMI::Server.

AUTHOR

Stephen Pandich, pandich@yahoo.com