# Limitations of ruby's XMLRPC?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limitations-of-rubys-xmlrpc/121755>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 30, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limitations-of-rubys-xmlrpc/121755 "2007-11-30T16:07:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kyle\_s](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kyle\_s](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyle_s)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limitations-of-rubys-xmlrpc/121755/1 "2007-11-30T16:07:31Z")

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What are the limitations of ruby’s XMLRPC?  
After playing with some tutorials and reading a few articles, I’ve  
written a few sample programs for myself, and ran into some oddities.

They weren’t really much to overcome, but the bad thing was, I  
couldn’t find any article or resource that really listed out what this  
XMLRPC implementation could and couldn’t do.

So…

Is there:  
A limit to what types may be passed in to a ruby XMLRPC server?  
A limit to what types may be passed into a ruby XMLRPC client?  
A limit to how many arguments may be passed into an XMLRPC sever?  
What data types will get converted and to what, in ruby’s XMLRC?  
…  
And any other things that may be a surprise.

Thanks  
–Kyle

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**Author:** ![kyle\_s](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@kyle\_s](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyle_s)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/limitations-of-rubys-xmlrpc/121755/2 "2007-11-30T16:30:22Z")

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On Nov 30, 2007, at 9:07 AM, Kyle S. wrote:

> What are the limitations of ruby’s XMLRPC?

> Is there:  
> A limit to what types may be passed in to a ruby XMLRPC server?  
> A limit to what types may be passed into a ruby XMLRPC client?

By default, you can only use the types allowed by the XML-RPC  
specification:

[http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec](http://www.xmlrpc.com/spec)

Ruby’s XML-RPC library does include configuration options for  
serializing most Ruby object though and then reconstructing them at  
the other side. I don’t recommend using this feature though. Switch  
to DRb if you are willing to tie yourself to just using Ruby.

> A limit to how many arguments may be passed into an XMLRPC sever?

I’m not aware of a limit, save for available limit. You could always  
pass an Array as a single argument to get around one.

Now, I could envision a server rejecting requests that are too big.

> What data types will get converted and to what, in ruby’s XMLRC?

/: Integer  
: true or false  
: String  
: Float  
\<dateTime.iso8601\>: XMLRPC::DateTime  
: XMLRPC::Base64  
: Hash  
: Array

Hope that helps.

James Edward G. II