Protocols

Resin provides two compact web services protocols: Hessian and Burlap. Hessian is a small binary protocol. Burlap is a matching XML protocol. In both cases, providing a web service is as simple as creating a servlet and using a service can just use the JDK Proxy interface.

Hessian

Hessian is a simple binary protocol for connecting web services. The com.caucho.hessian.client and com.caucho.hessian.server packages do not require any other Resin classes, so can be used in smaller clients, like applets.

Hessian Messaging

The Hessian binary web service protocol can provide a messaging service layered on top of its RPC call. The messaging service itself is based on the standard Hessian RPC call, so Hessian itself has no need to become more complicated.

Burlap

Burlap is a simple XML-based protocol for connecting web services. The com.caucho.burlap.client and com.caucho.burlap.server packages do not require any other Resin classes, so can be used in smaller clients, like applets.

Burlap Notes

As described in the Burlap draft spec , we created Burlap to implement Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) using an XML-based protocol with reasonable performance. Although many RPC protocols already exist, including several based on XML, none met our application's needs. The name "Burlap" was chosed for a simple reason: it's boring. Unlike the exciting protocols defining "Internet 3.0", SOAP and XML-RPC, Burlap is just boring text-based protocol to make testing and debugging EJB a little bit easier.

Hessian 1.0 Specification

Hessian is a compact binary protocol for connecting web services.

Burlap 1.0 Specification

Burlap Java Binding Draft Spec

Protocol Tutorials

Hessian Addition: The addition example creates a Hessian web services with a servlet and uses that web service from a JSP client and a Python client.
Burlap Addition: The addition example creates a Burlap web services with a servlet and uses that web service from a JSP client.

Performance

Documentation

Hessian