corda/docs/source/clientrpc.rst

Client RPC
==========

There are multiple ways to interact with a node from a *client program*, but if your client is written in a JVM
compatible language the easiest way to do so is using the client library. The library connects to your running
node using a message queue protocol and then provides a simple RPC interface to interact with it. You make calls
on a Java object as normal, and the marshalling back and forth is handled for you.

The starting point for the client library is the `CordaRPCClient`_ class. This provides a ``start`` method that
returns a `CordaRPCConnection`_, holding an implementation of the `CordaRPCOps`_ that may be accessed with ``proxy``
in Kotlin and ``getProxy()`` in Java. Observables that are returned by RPCs can be subscribed to in order to receive
an ongoing stream of updates from the node. More detail on how to use this is provided in the docs for the proxy method.

.. warning:: The returned `CordaRPCConnection`_ is somewhat expensive to create and consumes a small amount of
   server side resources. When you're done with it, call ``close`` on it. Alternatively you may use the ``use``
   method on `CordaRPCClient`_ which cleans up automatically after the passed in lambda finishes. Don't create
   a new proxy for every call you make - reuse an existing one.

For a brief tutorial on how one can use the RPC API see :doc:`tutorial-clientrpc-api`.

Security
--------

Users wanting to use the RPC library are first required to authenticate themselves with the node using a valid username
and password. These are specified in the configuration file. Each user can be configured with a set of permissions which
the RPC can use for fine-grain access control.

Observables
-----------

The RPC system handles observables in a special way. When a method returns an observable, whether directly or
as a sub-object of the response object graph, an observable is created on the client to match the one on the
server. Objects emitted by the server-side observable are pushed onto a queue which is then drained by the client.
The returned observable may even emit object graphs with even more observables in them, and it all works as you
would expect.

This feature comes with a cost: the server must queue up objects emitted by the server-side observable until you
download them. Note that the server side observation buffer is bounded, once it fills up the client is considered
slow and kicked. You are expected to subscribe to all the observables returned, otherwise client-side memory starts
filling up as observations come in. If you don't want an observable then subscribe then unsubscribe immediately to
clear the client-side buffers and to stop the server from streaming. If your app quits then server side resources
will be freed automatically.

.. warning:: If you leak an observable on the client side and it gets garbage collected, you will get a warning
   printed to the logs and the observable will be unsubscribed for you. But don't rely on this, as garbage collection
   is non-deterministic.

Futures
-------

A method can also return a ``ListenableFuture`` in its object graph and it will be treated in a similar manner to
observables. Calling the ``cancel`` method on the future will unsubscribe it from any future value and release any resources.

Versioning
----------

The client RPC protocol is versioned using the node's Platform Version (see :doc:`versioning`). When a proxy is created
the server is queried for its version, and you can specify your minimum requirement. Methods added in later versions
are tagged with the ``@RPCSinceVersion`` annotation. If you try to use a method that the server isn't advertising support
of, an ``UnsupportedOperationException`` is thrown. If you want to know the version of the server, just use the
``protocolVersion`` property (i.e. ``getProtocolVersion`` in Java).

Thread safety
-------------

A proxy is thread safe, blocking, and allows multiple RPCs to be in flight at once. Any observables that are returned and
you subscribe to will have objects emitted in order on a background thread pool. Each Observable stream is tied to a single
thread, however note that two separate Observables may invoke their respective callbacks on different threads.

Error handling
--------------

If something goes wrong with the RPC infrastructure itself, an ``RPCException`` is thrown. If you call a method that
requires a higher version of the protocol than the server supports, ``UnsupportedOperationException`` is thrown.
Otherwise, if the server implementation throws an exception, that exception is serialised and rethrown on the client
side as if it was thrown from inside the called RPC method. These exceptions can be caught as normal.

Wire protocol
-------------

The client RPC wire protocol is defined and documented in ``net/corda/client/rpc/RPCApi.kt``.

Whitelisting classes with the Corda node
----------------------------------------

To avoid the RPC interface being wide open to all
classes on the classpath, Cordapps have to whitelist any classes they require with the serialization framework of Corda,
if they are not one of those whitelisted by default in ``DefaultWhitelist``, via either the plugin architecture or simply
with the annotation ``@CordaSerializable``.  See :doc:`running-a-node` or :doc:`serialization`.  An example is shown in :doc:`tutorial-clientrpc-api`.

.. warning:: We will be replacing the use of Kryo in the serialization framework and so additional changes here are likely.

.. _CordaRPCClient: api/javadoc/net/corda/client/rpc/CordaRPCClient.html
.. _CordaRPCOps: api/javadoc/net/corda/core/messaging/CordaRPCOps.html
.. _CordaRPCConnection: api/javadoc/net/corda/client/rpc/CordaRPCConnection.html