Hessian is a binary web service

Web service

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...

 protocol that makes web services usable without requiring a large framework, and without learning a new set of protocols. Because it is a binary protocol, it is well-suited to sending binary data without any need to extend the protocol with attachments.

Hessian was developed by Caucho Technology, Inc. The company has released Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

, Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

 and ActionScript for Adobe Flash

ActionScript

ActionScript is an object-oriented language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. . It is a dialect of ECMAScript , and is used primarily for the development of websites and software targeting the Adobe Flash Player platform, used on Web pages in the form of...

 implementations of Hessian under an open source license (the Apache license

Apache License

The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer....

). Third party implementations in several other languages (C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

, .NET C#, Perl

Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...

, PHP

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

, Ruby, Objective-C

Objective-C

Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...

, D, and Erlang) are also available as open-source.

Adaptations

Although Hessian is primarily intended for web services, it can be adapted for TCP

Transmission Control Protocol

The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...

 traffic by using the HessianInput and HessianOutput classes in Caucho's Java implementation.

Implementations

• Cotton (Erlang)
• HessianCPP (C++
  C++
  C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
  
  )
• HessianC# (C#)
• Hessian (on Rubyforge) (Ruby
  Ruby (programming language)
  Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
  
  )
• HessianRuby (Ruby
  Ruby (programming language)
  Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
  
  )
• Hessian-Translator (Perl)
• HessianPHP (PHP
  PHP
  PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
  
  )
• HessianPy (Python
  Python (programming language)
  Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
  
  )
• HessianObjC (Objective-C
  Objective-C
  Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...
  
  )
• HessianKit (Objective-C 2.0)
• HessianD (D)
• Hessian4J (Java).
• HessDroid (Android).

See also

• Abstract Syntax Notation One
  Abstract Syntax Notation One
  Data generated at various sources of observation need to be transmitted to one or more locations that process it to generate useful results. For example, voluminous signal data collected by a radio telescope from outer space. The system recording the data and the system processing it later may be...
  
   (ASN.1)
• Cisco
  Cisco
  Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
  
  's Etch
  Etch (protocol)
  Etch is an open source, cross-platform framework for building network services, first announced in May 2008 by Cisco Systems. Etch encompasses a service description language, a compiler, and a number of language bindings...
  
  
• Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
  
  ’s Thrift
  Thrift (protocol)
  Thrift is an interface definition language that is used to define and create services for numerous languages. It is used as a remote procedure call framework and was developed at Facebook for "scalable cross-language services development"...
  
  
• Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
  's Protocol Buffers
  Protocol Buffers
  Protocol Buffers are a serialization format with an interface description language developed by Google. The original Google implementation for C++, Java and Python is available under a free software, open source license....
  
  
• Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
  's "M
  M (programming language)
  M is a programming language developed by Microsoft. The language is designed specifically for building textual domain-specific languages and software models with XAML....
  
  "
• ZeroC
  ZeroC
  ZeroC, Inc. is a company based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, U.S., revolving around the development and licensing of the Internet Communications Engine, or ICE, an object middleware system considered an alternative to CORBA and SOAP...
  
  's Internet Communications Engine
  Internet Communications Engine
  The Internet Communications Engine, or Ice, is an object-oriented middleware that provides object-oriented Remote Procedure Call, grid computing and Publish/subscribe functionality developed by ZeroC and dual-licensed under the GNU GPL and a proprietary license...
  
  (ICE)