vaadin-framework/documentation/articles/UsingRPCToSendEventsToTheClient.asciidoc

---
title: Using RPC To Send Events To The Client
order: 71
layout: page
---

[[using-rpc-to-send-events-to-the-client]]
= Using RPC to send events to the client

An RPC mechanism can be used to communicate from the server to the
client. In effect, the server-side component can call methods that are
executed by the client-side connector. As opposed to shared state
(discussed in a separate article), no information is automatically
re-transmitted when the client-side state is lost (e.g when a browser
reload is invoked).

Whether shared state or RPC is appropriate depends on the nature of the
data being transmitted, but if the information transmitted needs to be
retained on the client over a page refresh, you should probably use
shared state. You'll probably find shared state more appropriate in most
cases, and server-client RPC extremely useful in a few cases.

To set up server-client RPC, we need to create an interface extending
`ClientRpc` for the RPC methods, then register an implementation of the
RPC interface in the client-side connector, and call the method(s) via a
proxy on the server. This is the reverse of the server-client RPC
described in a separate article.

We'll create *MyComponentClientRpc* in the client package:

[source,java]
....
package com.example.mycomponent.client;

import com.vaadin.shared.communication.ClientRpc;

public interface MyComponentClientRpc extends ClientRpc {
  public void alert(String message);
}
....

Again, note that the RPC methods can not return anything, but can take
multiple arguments.

In *MyComponentConnector* we register the RPC implementation in the
constructor. This time we'll create the implementation inline:

[source,java]
....
package com.example.mycomponent.client;

// imports removed for clarity

@Connect(MyComponent.class)
public class MyComponentConnector extends AbstractComponentConnector {

  MyComponentServerRpc rpc = RpcProxy
      .create(MyComponentServerRpc.class, this);

  public MyComponentConnector() {
    registerRpc(MyComponentClientRpc.class, new MyComponentClientRpc() {
      public void alert(String message) {
        Window.alert(message);
      }
    });

/* The rest of the code remains unchanged:

    getWidget().addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
      public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
        final MouseEventDetails mouseDetails = MouseEventDetailsBuilder
            .buildMouseEventDetails(event.getNativeEvent(),
                getWidget().getElement());
        rpc.clicked(mouseDetails);
      }
    });
  }
  @Override
  protected Widget createWidget() {
    return GWT.create(MyComponentWidget.class);
  }
  @Override
  public MyComponentWidget getWidget() {
    return (MyComponentWidget) super.getWidget();
  }
  @Override
  public MyComponentState getState() {
    return (MyComponentState) super.getState();
  }
  @OnStateChange("text")
  void updateText() {
    getWidget().setText(getState().text);
  }
*/
}
....

(`MyComponentServerRpc` is introduced in
<<SendingEventsFromTheClientToTheServerUsingRPC#, Sending
events from the client to the server using RPC>>. `Window` here is
`com.google.gwt.user.client.Window`, _not_ `com.vaadin.ui.Window`.)

Finally, in *MyComponent* we use the RPC via a proxy:

[source,java]
....
import com.vaadin.ui.AbstractComponent;

public class MyComponent extends AbstractComponent {

  private int clickCount = 0;

  private MyComponentServerRpc rpc = new MyComponentServerRpc() {
    public void clicked(MouseEventDetails mouseDetails) {
      clickCount++;

      // nag every 5:th click
      if (clickCount % 5 == 0) {
        getRpcProxy(MyComponentClientRpc.class).alert(
            "Ok, that's enough!");
      }

     // setText("You have clicked " + clickCount + " times");
    }
  };

/* Unchanged code follows:
  public MyComponent() {
    registerRpc(rpc);
  }

  @Override
  public MyComponentState getState() {
    return (MyComponentState) super.getState();
  }

  public void setText(String text) {
    getState().text = text;
  }

  public String getText() {
    return getState().text;
  }
*/
}
....

That is: every fifth time the label is clicked, we get the RPC proxy by
calling `getRpcProxy()` and call our `alert()` method with a message to
send to the client.

Compile the widgetset, and you're all set to try out server-client RPC.