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libjson-rpc-cpp

This framework provides cross platform JSON-RPC (remote procedure call) support for C++. It is fully JSON-RPC 2.0 & 1.0 compatible.

5 good reasons for using libjson-rpc-cpp in your next RPC project

• Full JSON-RPC 2.0 & partial JSON-RPC 1.0 client and server Support.
• jsonrpcstub - a tool that generates stub-classes for your JSON-RPC client and server applications.
• Ready to use HTTP + TCP server and client to provide simple interfaces for your JSON-RPC application.
• Cross platform build support for Linux and OS X.
• Super liberal MIT-License.

Other good reasons to use libjson-rpc-cpp

• Easy to use cmake cross platform build system.
• Clean and simple architecture, which makes it easy to extend.
• Continuously tested under MacOS, and various linux distributions.
• Automated testing using make test.
• Useful Examples provided. e.g. XBMC Remote using json-rpc client part and stub generator.
• The stubgenerator currently supports C++ and JavaScript.

Overview

Install the framework

Debian (stretch) and Ubuntu (15.10 or later)

sudo apt-get install libjsonrpccpp-dev libjsonrpccpp-tools

Arch Linux

For Arch Linux there is a PKGBUILD provided in the AUR.

sudo aura -A libjson-rpc-cpp

Gentoo Linux

sudo emerge dev-cpp/libjson-rpc-cpp

Mac OS X

For OS X a Brew package is available:

brew install libjson-rpc-cpp

Windows

There is a ready to use compiled package here. Just download execute the installer EXE.

Build from source

Install the dependencies

• libcurl
• libmicrohttpd
• libjsoncpp
• libargtable
• cmake
• libhiredis

UNIX

For Debian and Arch GNU/Linux based systems, all dependencies are available via the package manager. For OS X all dependencies are available in Brew

Build

git clone git://github.com/cinemast/libjson-rpc-cpp.git
mkdir -p libjson-rpc-cpp/build
cd libjson-rpc-cpp/build
cmake .. && make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig          #only required for linux

That's it!

If you are not happy with it, simply uninstall it from your system using (inside the build the directory):

sudo make uninstall

Build options:

Default configuration should be fine for most systems, but here are available compilation flags:

• -DCOMPILE_TESTS=NO disables unit test suite.
• -DCOMPILE_STUBGEN=NO disables building the stubgenerator.
• -DCOMPILE_EXAMPLES=NO disables examples.
• -DHTTP_SERVER=NO disable the libmicrohttpd webserver.
• -DHTTP_CLIENT=NO disable the curl client.
• -DREDIS_SERVER=NO disable the redis server connector.
• -DREDIS_CLIENT=NO disable the redis client connector.
• -DUNIX_DOMAIN_SOCKET_SERVER=NO disable the unix domain socket server connector.
• -DUNIX_DOMAIN_SOCKET_CLIENT=NO disable the unix domain socket client connector.
• -DFILE_DESCRIPTOR_SERVER=NO disable the file descriptor server connector.
• -DFILE_DESCRIPTOR_CLIENT=NO disable the file descriptor client connector.
• -DTCP_SOCKET_SERVER=NO disable the tcp socket server connector.
• -DTCP_SOCKET_CLIENT=NO disable the tcp socket client connector.

Using the framework

This example will show the most simple way to create a rpc server and client. If you only need the server, ignore step 4. If you only need the client, ignore step 3. You can find all resources of this sample in the src/examples directory of this repository.

Step 1: Writing the specification file

[
	{
		"name": "sayHello",
		"params": {
			"name": "Peter"
		},
		"returns" : "Hello Peter"
	},
	{
		"name" : "notifyServer"
	}
]

The type of a return value or parameter is defined by the literal assigned to it. In this example you can see how to specify methods and notifications.

Step 2: Generate the stubs for client and server

Call jsonrpcstub:

jsonrpcstub spec.json --cpp-server=AbstractStubServer --cpp-client=StubClient

This generates a serverstub and a clientstub class.

Step 3: implement the abstract server stub

Extend the abstract server stub and implement all pure virtual (abstract) methods defined in spec.json.

#include "abstractstubserver.h"
#include <jsonrpccpp/server/connectors/httpserver.h>

using namespace jsonrpc;
using namespace std;

class MyStubServer : public AbstractStubServer
{
    public:
        MyStubServer(AbstractServerConnector &connector);

        virtual void notifyServer();
        virtual std::string sayHello(const std::string& name);
};

MyStubServer::MyStubServer(AbstractServerConnector &connector) :
    AbstractStubServer(connector)
{
}
void MyStubServer::notifyServer()
{
    cout << "Server got notified" << endl;
}
string MyStubServer::sayHello(const string &name)
{
    return "Hello " + name;
}

int main()
{
    HttpServer httpserver(8383);
    MyStubServer s(httpserver);
    s.StartListening();
    getchar();
    s.StopListening();
    return 0;
}

In the main function the concrete server is instantiated and started. That is all for the server. Any JSON-RPC 2.0 compliant client can now connect to your server.

Compile the server with:

g++ main.cpp -ljsoncpp -lmicrohttpd -ljsonrpccpp-common -ljsonrpccpp-server -o sampleserver

Step 4: Create the client application

#include <iostream>

#include "stubclient.h"
#include <jsonrpccpp/client/connectors/httpclient.h>

using namespace jsonrpc;
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    HttpClient httpclient("http://localhost:8383");
    StubClient c(httpclient);
    try
    {
        cout << c.sayHello("Peter") << endl;
        c.notifyServer();
    }
    catch (JsonRpcException e)
    {
        cerr << e.what() << endl;
    }
}

Compile the client with:

g++ main.cpp -ljsoncpp -lcurl -ljsonrpccpp-common -ljsonrpccpp-client -o sampleclient

Contributions

Please take a look at CONTRIBUTING.md

Changelogs

Changelogs can be found here.

API compatibility

We do our best to keep the API/ABI stable, to prevent problems when updating this framework. A compatiblity report can be found here.

License

This framework is licensed under MIT. All of this libraries dependencies are licensed under MIT compatible licenses.

References

• NASA Ames Research Center: use it to obtain aircraft state information from an aircraft simulator.
• LaseShark 3D Printer: used to control the firmware of the 3D printer.
• cpp-ethereum: C++ implementations for the ethereum crypto currency.
• mage-sdk-cpp: a game engine.
• bitcodin: a scalable cloud based video transcoding platform.
• wgslib: a web geostatistics library.
• bitcoin-api-cpp: a C++ interface to bitcoin.
• NIT DASH Content Server: Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP server.

If you use this library and find it useful, I would be very pleased if you let me know about it.