What Is Data Marshalling?

Data marshalling is a method of handling information through the language-based TxRPC (X/Open-TxRPC) offered by the BEA Tuxedo system. TxRPC is a set of protocols for remote procedure calls that supports global transactions. Though a TxRPC call looks like a local procedure call, when a C function is called, the arguments passed to the function are packaged so they can be sent to a server that performs the work of the called function. This argument packaging is called marshalling. A function's arguments are marshalled or packaged in a way that allows them to cross network and platform boundaries, and then unmarshalled at their destination before being passed to the invoked remote procedure, ready for use.

This process is transparent to the client (the calling program) and the server (the remote procedure). The marshalling and unmarshalling routines are generated automatically by the BEA Tuxedo Interface Definition Language (IDL) compiler. An IDL compiler takes a description of a set of RPCs and generates routines, called stubs, for the client and server programs. These stubs contain marshalling and unmarshalling logic, as well as the communication logic that allows a client and server to exchange marshalled data.

Data Marshalling