NAME

SOAP::XML::Client::Generic - talk with 'generic' webservices, e.g. not .net

DESCRIPTION

This package helps in talking with SOAP webservers, it just needs a bit of XML thrown at it and you get some XML back. It's designed to be REALLY simple to use, it doesn't try to be cleaver in any way (patches for 'cleaverness' welcome).

The major difference to SOAP::XML::Client::DotNet is it will submit as:

SOAPAction: "http://www.yourdomain.com/services#GetSellerActivity"

and namesp<X> will be added to the XML submitted, including for the xmlns.

SYNOPSIS

  If your service looks like this:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <soap:Body>
      <GetActivity xmlns="http://www.yourdomain.com/services">
        <userId>long</userId>
      </GetActivity>
    </soap:Body>
  </soap:Envelope>


  # Create an object with basic SOAP::Lite config stuff
  my $soap_client = SOAP::XML::Client::Generic->new({
    uri                 => 'http://www.yourdomain.com/services',
    proxy               => 'http://www.yourproxy.com/services',
    xmlns               => 'http://www.yourdomain.com/services',
    soapversion         => '1.1', # defaults to 1.1
    timeout             => '30', # detauls to 30 seconds
    strip_default_xmlns => 1, # defaults to 1
  });


  # Create the following XML:

  my $user_id = '900109';
  my $xml = "<userId _value_type='long'>$user_id</userId>";

  ###########
  # Warning: you might have to supply data types (using _value_type) 
  # for each field, depending on the service you are talking to
  ###########

  # Actually do the call
  if( $soap_client->fetch({
                         'method' => 'GetActivity',
                         'xml' => $xml,
                     }) ) {
                      # Get result as a string
                      my $xml_string = $soap_client->result();

                      # Get result as a XML::LibXML object
                      my $xml_libxml_object = $soap_client->result_xml();

  } else {
    # Got an error
    print "Problem using service:" . $soap_client->error();

  }

methods

new()

  my $soap_client = SOAP::XML::Client::Generic->new({
    uri         => 'http://www.yourdomain.com/services',
    proxy       => 'http://www.yourproxy.com/services',
    xmlns       => 'http://www.yourdomain.com/services',
    soapversion => '1.1', # defaults to 1.1
    timeout     => '30', # detauls to 30 seconds
    strip_default_xmlns => 1, # defaults to 1
  });

This constructor requires uri, proxy and xmlns to be supplied, otherwise it will croak.

strip_default_xmlns is used to remove xmlns="http://.../" from returned XML, it will NOT alter xmlns:FOO="http//.../" set to '0' if you do not wish for this to happen.

header()

   my $header = SOAP::Header->name(
          SomeDomain => {
              Username => "a_user",
              Password => 'xxxxx',
          }
      )->uri('http://www.thedomain.com/')->prefix('');

    $soap_client->header($header);

Add a soap header to the soap call, probably useful if there is credential based authenditcation

fetch()

  # Generate the required XML (you don't need the SOAP wrapper or method part of the XML
  my $user_id = '900109';
  my $xml = "<userId _value_type='long'>$user_id</userId>";

  if($soap_client->fetch({ method => 'GetActivity', xml => $xml }) {
      # Get result as a string
      my $xml_string = $soap_client->result();

      # Get result as a XML::LibXML object
      my $xml_libxml_object = $soap_client->result_xml();

  } else {
      # There was some sort of error
      print $soap_client->error() . "\n";
  }

This method actually calls the web service, it takes a method name and an xml string. If there is a problem with either the XML or the SOAP transport (e.g. web server error/could not connect etc) undef will be returned and the error() will be set.

Each node in the XML supplied (either by string or from a filename) can have _value_type defined or the submitted format may default to 'string' (depending on SOAP::Data::Builder).

You can supply 'filename' rather than 'xml' and it will read in from the file.

We check for Fault/faultstring in the returned XML, anything else you'll need to check for yourself.

error()

  $soap_client->error();

If fetch returns undef then check this method, it will either be that the filename you supplied couldn't be read, the XML you supplied was not correctly formatted (XML::LibXML could not parse it), there was a transport error with the web service or Fault/faultstring was found in the XML returned.

results();

  my $results = $soap_client->results();

Can be called after fetch() to get the raw XML, if fetch was sucessful.

results_xml();

  my $results_as_xml = $soap_client->results_xml();

Can be called after fetch() to get the XML::LibXML Document element of the returned xml, as long as fetch was sucessful.

HOW TO DEBUG

At the top of your script, before 'use SOAP::XML::Client::Generic' add:

use SOAP::Lite ( +trace => 'all', readable => 1, outputxml => 1, );

It may or may not help, not all services don't give you helpful error messages! At least you can see what's being submitted and returned. It can be the smallest thing that causes a problem, mis-typed data (see _value_type in xml), or typo in xmlns line.

BUGS

This is only designed to work with generic services, it may work with others. I haven't found any open webservices which I can use to test against, but as far as I'm aware it all works - web services are all standard.. right.. :) ?

AUTHOR

Leo Lapworth <LLAP@cuckoo.org>

COPYRIGHT

This library is free software, you can use it under the same terms as perl itself.