Types

JSON and XML-RPC are two unrelated markup languages, so converting between the types requires a small understanding of both languages. Luckily, most of the types have a direct mapping between the two languages.

Encoding and Decoding XML-RPC Documents

Use the following table to see how XML-RPC types are mapped to JavaScript types:

XML-RPC JavaScript
<nil> null
<array> Array
<struct> Object
<string> String
<boolean> Boolean
<int> Number
<i4>
<i8>
<i16>
<double> Number
<dateTime.iso8601> Date
<base64> ArrayBuffer

Note

JavaScript does not have separate types for integers and floats, it simply has Number. As such, it is impossible to tell if 4 really means <int>4</int> or <double>4</double>. If this is an issue for you, read on.

Forcing types

Some times, the automatic type guessing going from JSON to XML-RPC may not work for you. The most common source of this problem is in encoding numbers. The library may sometimes encode a Number as a <int> instead of a <float>, as there is no reliable way of determining what was actually desired.

To force a type, wrap the value in a call to $.xmlrpc.force. The types are named after their XML-RPC equivalents, as mentioned in the above table.

To force a floating point JavaScript Number to be encoded as an <i8> and sent as a parameter, use the following:

var forcedValue = $.xmlrpc.force('i8', 4.5)

$.xmlrpc({
    url: '/RPC2',
    methodName: 'foo',
    params: [forcedValue]
});

Adding and Extending Types

You can add your own types to XML-RPC by adding a member to $.xmlrpc.types, combined with the $.xmlrpc.makeType function. See $.xmlrpc.makeType() for more information