for the most partrpc calls work just like ordinary python functions howeveronly limited number of argument types and return values are supported by the xml-rpc protocolxml-rpc type python equivalent boolean integer float string array structure dates binary true and false int float string or unicode (must only contain characters valid in xmlany sequence containing valid xml-rpc types dictionary containing string keys and values of valid types date and time (xmlrpc client datetimebinary data (xmlrpc client binarywhen dates are receivedthey are stored in an xmlrpc client datetime instance the value attribute contains the date as an iso time/date string to convert it into time tuple compatible with the time moduleuse timetuple(when binary data is receivedit is stored in an xmlrpc client binary instance the data attribute contains the data as byte string be aware that strings are assumed to be unicode and that you will have to worry about using proper encodings sending raw python byte strings will work if they contain ascii but will break otherwise to deal with thisconvert to unicode string first if you make an rpc call with arguments involving invalid typesyou may get typeerror or an xmlrpclib fault exception if the remote xml-rpc server supports introspectionthe following methods may be availables system listmethods(returns list of strings listing all the methods provided by the xml-rpc server methodsignatures(namegiven the name of methodnamereturns list of possible calling signatures for the method each signature is list of types in the form of comma-separated string (for example'stringintint')where the first item is the return type and the remaining items are argument types multiple signatures may be returned due to overloading in xml-rpc servers implemented in pythonsignatures are typically empty because functions and methods are dynamically typed methodhelp(namegiven the name of methodnamereturns documentation string describing the use of that method documentation strings may contain html markup an empty string is returned if no documentation is available the following utility functions are available in the xmlrpclib moduleboolean(valuecreates an xml-rpc boolean object from value this function predates the existence of the python boolean typeso you may see it used in older code lib fl ff