Ice

RPCs with Ice

Remote procedure calls ([RPCs][rpcs]) are at the heart of the Ice framework.

You create RPCs with an easy 2-step process:

Define the contract between your client and your server with the [Slice][slice] language—Ice’s [IDL][idl].
Run the Slice compiler on these Slice definitions to generate stubs in the programming language(s) of your choice.

For example:

// The contract specified using Slice.
interface Hello
{
    // The caller says "hello".
    void sayHello();
}

”`shell

The Ice framework provides everything you need to build networked applications:

RPCs with a compact binary [protocol][protocol] over a variety of network transports (TCP, UDP, WebSocket, Bluetooth…)
Secure communications ([IceSSL][icessl])
Configuration ([Ice Properties][properties])
Logging ([Ice Logger][logger])
Instrumentation and metrics ([IceMX][icemx])
Pub-sub ([IceStorm][icestorm], [DataStorm][datastorm])
Server deployment, replication and monitoring ([IceGrid][icegrid])
Application gateway ([Glacier2][glacier2])

The Ice API is defined almost entirely using Slice; as a result, it is essentially the same in all programming languages.