Invoke Perl package static methods in C# app

This article provides an introduction to cross-technology invocation of static methods.

Javonet allows you to reference and use modules or packages written in (Java/Kotlin/Groovy/Clojure, C#/VB.NET, Ruby, Perl, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript) like they were created in your technology. If have not yet created your first project check Javonet overview and quick start guides for your technology.

With Javonet you can interact with static methods from Perl package like they were available in C# but invocation must be performed through Javonet SDK API, passing the name of the target method as String.

Javonet allows you to pass any C# value type as argument to static method from Perl package. In example: int, float, string, char, long and other. For reference type arguments (instances of other classes) you can create such instance with Javonet and pass the Invocation Context variable referencing that object as argument of static method invocation.

Use custom Perl package static methods in C# application

With Javonet it is possible to reference any custom Perl package and interact with public static methods declared on types defined within that module almost the same as with any other C# library.

Snippet below represents the sample code from Perl package which contains class and its methods: 

sub multiply_by_two {
	my ($a) = @_;
	return $a * 2;
}

sub multiply_two_numbers {
	my ($self, $a, $b) = @_;
	return $a * $b;
}

It is possible to invoke one of the declared static methods from Perl package using following C# code.

I code in:
// use Activate only once in your app
Javonet.Activate("your-license-key");

// create called runtime context
var calledRuntime = Javonet.InMemory().Perl();

// set up variables
string libraryPath = resourcesDirectory + "/TestClass.pm";
string className = "TestClass::TestClass";

// load custom library
calledRuntime.LoadLibrary(libraryPath);

// get type from the runtime
var calledRuntimeType = calledRuntime.GetType(className).Execute();

// invoke type's static method
var response = calledRuntimeType.InvokeStaticMethod("multiply_by_two", 25).Execute();

            // get value from response
            var result = (int)response.GetValue();

            // write result to console
            System.Console.WriteLine(result);

In code snippet above you can see how easily you can activate Javonet and instruct it using inMemory() method to create new RuntimeContext that will run perl-package runtime within your current process. Next with addLibrary method it triggers the load of required perl-package module and allows you to interact with any classes and their static methods defined in that package.

Further calls to invokeStaticMethod() allows to call "multiplyByTwo" perl-package static method and pass the value type arguments. With Javonet you can invoke methods with any number and any type of arguments including value type arguments, reference type arguments, arrays and collections.

You can receive and further process and type of result returned by called perl-package method, regardless if it is reference type that will get returned as another instance of Invocation Context that you can use for further interaction, or value type that you can obtain as csharp value with getValue() method.

Use framework static methods in C# application

With Javonet you can interact not only with any custom perl-package module but also with any perl-package framework objects. The same steps are required to use types and methods from standard Perl package framework class:

I code in:
// use Activate only once in your app
Javonet.Activate("your-license-key");

// create called runtime context
var calledRuntime = Javonet.InMemory().Perl();

// construct an invocation context - this invocationContext in non-materialized 
var invocationContext = calledRuntime.GetType("CORE").
    InvokeStaticMethod("abs", -50);

// execute invocation context - this will materialize the invocationContext
var response = invocationContext.Execute();

// get value from response
var result = (int)response.GetValue();

// write result to console
System.Console.WriteLine(result);

In sample above you see how the Javonet allows to create an instance of Perl package Math class and interact with its static abs method. The same operation can be performed remotely by just changing the new Runtime Context invocation from in memory to tcp that will create and interact with your Perl package objects on any remote node, container or service that hosts Javonet Code Gateway. This way you can preserve the same logic in your application and instantly switch between monolithic and microservices architecture without the need to implement the integration layer based on web services or other remote invocation methods.

Read more about use cases and software architecture scenarios where Javonet runtime bridging technology can support your development process.

Additional references