Is using IP sockets for RPC functionality for a distributed system a good idea?

Question

I am curious if using an socket daemon in PHP a good idea for building RPC functionality on a distributed system?

Answer 1

Well, it depends on what exactly you're doing. But in general, I'd personally build a restful interface as opposed to using raw sockets. That way it's just a normal HTTP get (which is easy to use, extend, etc) rather than needing to invent your own protocol. Either that, or use one of the many RPC protocols:

• XMLRPC
• JSONRPC <- I like this since it's so easy to use in just about any language
• SOAP
• etc...