Once we have the transport address of the service, we can send messages directly to the server. Exporting an interface registers it with the system so that clients can use it. The export and import operations are analogous to those found in object-oriented systems. Grapevine was developed at Xerox by the same research group the developed the Ethernet. Among other things, Grapevine provides a distributed, replicated database, implemented by servers residing at various locations around the internet.
Clients can query, add new entries or modify existing entries in the database.
The Grapevine database maps character string keys to entries called RNames. Each server registers the transport address at which its service can be accessed and every instance of an interface is registered as an individual entry. Individual entries map instances to their corresponding transport addresses. The type of an interface, which consists of a list of individual RNames . Group entries contain RNames that point to servers providing the service having that group name.