XML-RPC from a client?

Hi folks,

I'm not too familiar with XML-RPC in SL - are there limits on where an XML-RPC call can be retrieved from?

As I mentioned elseboard I've been trying to do a Firefox extension for SL players (well, the ones who didn't get hacked off with me on that thread anyway ), and I've noticed a few calls for offline IMs. It strikes me that this could be done by having an object with an XML-RPC channel, and letting the user enter their IM request into the browser extension; the user's client computer can then make the XML-RPC call onto an in-world object to actually send the IM (of course there'd have to be authentication involved)

I know that XML-RPC is generally driven off external web sites - is there anything in particular to stop a client from using it, though?

XML-RPC is incoming only... an object cant send out the request via a XML-RPC(but there are tools such as email that an object could use to initiate the request)... however once the contacted is initiated from a website ,if the person types an offline to the person that sent them a msg they get an email with the from address being the IM session ID..which i beleive times out.. not sure how long it takes though.

Sorry.. I'm not talking about the XML-RPC being output from the SL object.

I'm asking if an XML-RPC call can be send to an SL object, from a users' machine directly, rather than from a website that the user accesses.

There seems to me to be no reason why any client machine shouldn't be able to open the appropriate port and dump XML down it, but I thought it might be a good idea to check.

Yes, an xmlrpc request is a normal http request with an xml based payload. You should be able to develop your client and use it anywhere since an xmlrpc request is no different than loading a webpage. Though if you want it to be pretty its a good idea to use a server with it.

There is XML-RPC libraries for almost every library out there. I have successfully sent RPC packets to objects using my local desktop in a various different languages, from basically a replica of my server in Perl, to a local Flash file playing in the flash player, and even from Excell via VBA.