[xmlblaster] Native (socket) vs XML-RPC protocol for client implementation

[Michael Justin]

Dear all,

Currently my xmlBlaster client library for Delphi (planned for Free 
Pascal also) uses a XML-RPC library which I want to replace by a new 
solution because the XML-RPC lib is licensed under LGPL, so some license 
restrictions apply for users of this solution.

I would like to replace the communication protocol by native (socket) 
TCP/IP which seems to have some advantages - if I understand correctly 
the client uses only one socket to the message broker for outgoing and 
incoming messages and does not have to open an XML-RPC server port for 
the callback (which could cause firewall problems).

But if there are good reasons which make XML-RPC a better approach, I 
could also implement the library on top of another XML-RPC library which 
has a more 'commercial friendly' license.

My client library for xmlBlaster does not expose the protocol layer, so 
I am free to choose between native socket (which has some other nice 
advantages also) and XML-RPC, however the native socket seems to be more 
portable because it requires only a basic TCP/IP library.

I am not sure which solution to choose, but are there any features in 
the XML-RPC protocol version that make it the better choice compared 
with the native protocol? (assuming that the implementation time does 
not matter...)

Best Regards
--

Michael Justin
SCJP, SCJA
betasoft - Software for Delphi™ and for the Java™ platform
http://www.mikejustin.com - http://www.betabeans.de