SOAP::Lite - Client and server side SOAP implementation |
SOAP::Lite - Client and server side SOAP implementation
use SOAP::Lite; print SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://www.soaplite.com/Temperatures') -> proxy('http://services.soaplite.com/temper.cgi') -> f2c(32) -> result; The same code with autodispatch:
use SOAP::Lite +autodispatch => uri => 'http://www.soaplite.com/Temperatures', proxy => 'http://services.soaplite.com/temper.cgi';
print f2c(32);
Code in OO-style:
use SOAP::Lite +autodispatch => uri => 'http://www.soaplite.com/Temperatures', proxy => 'http://services.soaplite.com/temper.cgi';
my $temperatures = Temperatures->new(32); # get object print $temperatures->as_celsius; # invoke method
Code with service description:
use SOAP::Lite; print SOAP::Lite -> service('http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl') -> getQuote('MSFT');
Code for SOAP server (CGI):
use SOAP::Transport::HTTP; SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI -> dispatch_to('/Your/Path/To/Deployed/Modules', 'Module::Name', 'Module::method') -> handle;
Visual Basic client (through COM interface):
MsgBox CreateObject("SOAP.Lite").new( _ "proxy", "http://services.xmethods.net/soap", _ "uri", "urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes" _ ).getQuote("MSFT").result
mod_soap enabled SOAP server:
.htaccess
SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::SOAP PerlSetVar dispatch_to "/Your/Path/To/Deployed/Modules, Module::Name"
ASP/VB SOAP server:
<% Response.ContentType = "text/xml" Response.Write(Server.CreateObject("SOAP.Lite") _ .server("SOAP::Server") _ .dispatch_to("/Your/Path/To/Deployed/Modules") _ .handle(Request.BinaryRead(Request.TotalBytes)) _ ) %>
SOAP::Lite is a collection of Perl modules which provides a simple and lightweight interface to the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) both on client and server side.
This version of SOAP::Lite supports the SOAP 1.1 specification ( http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP ).
The main features of the library are:
See t/*.t, examples/*.pl and the module documentation for a client-side examples that demonstrate the serialization of a SOAP request, sending it via HTTP to the server and receiving the response, and the deserialization of the response. See examples/server/* for server-side implementations.
This table should give you a quick overview of the classes provided by the library.
SOAP::Lite.pm -- SOAP::Lite -- Main class provides all logic -- SOAP::Transport -- Supports transport architecture -- SOAP::Data -- Provides extensions for serialization architecture -- SOAP::Header -- Provides extensions for header serialization -- SOAP::Parser -- Parses XML file into object tree -- SOAP::Serializer -- Serializes data structures to SOAP package -- SOAP::Deserializer -- Deserializes results of SOAP::Parser into objects -- SOAP::SOM -- Provides access to deserialized object tree -- SOAP::Constants -- Provides access to common constants -- SOAP::Trace -- Provides tracing facilities -- SOAP::Schema -- Provides access and stub(s) for schema(s) -- SOAP::Schema::WSDL -- WSDL implementation for SOAP::Schema -- SOAP::Server -- Handles requests on server side -- SOAP::Server::Object -- Handles objects-by-reference -- SOAP::Fault -- Provides support for Faults on server side
SOAP::Transport::HTTP.pm -- SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Client -- Client interface to HTTP transport -- SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Server -- Server interface to HTTP transport -- SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI -- CGI implementation of server interface -- SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Daemon -- Daemon implementation of server interface -- SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Apache -- mod_perl implementation of server interface
SOAP::Transport::POP3.pm -- SOAP::Transport::POP3::Server -- Server interface to POP3 protocol
SOAP::Transport::MAILTO.pm -- SOAP::Transport::MAILTO::Client -- Client interface to SMTP/sendmail
SOAP::Transport::LOCAL.pm -- SOAP::Transport::LOCAL::Client -- Client interface to local transport
SOAP::Transport::TCP.pm -- SOAP::Transport::TCP::Server -- Server interface to TCP protocol -- SOAP::Transport::TCP::Client -- Client interface to TCP protocol
SOAP::Transport::IO.pm -- SOAP::Transport::IO::Server -- Server interface to IO transport
All methods that SOAP::Lite
provides can be used for both
setting and retrieving values. If you provide no parameters, you will
get current value, and if parameters are provided, a new value
will be assigned to the object and the method in question will return
the current object (if not stated otherwise). This is suitable for stacking
these calls like:
$lite = SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://simon.fell.com/calc') -> proxy('http://soap.4s4c.com/ssss4c/soap.asp') ;
The order is insignificant and you may call the new()
method first. If you
don't do it, SOAP::Lite will do it for you. However, the new()
method
gives you an additional syntax:
$lite = new SOAP::Lite uri => 'http://simon.fell.com/calc', proxy => 'http://soap.4s4c.com/ssss4c/soap.asp' ;
new()
new()
accepts a hash with method names as keys. It will call the
appropriate methods together with the passed values. Since new()
is
optional it won't be mentioned anymore.
transport()
serializer()
proxy()
transport->proxy()
. This lets you specify an endpoint
(service address) and also loads the required module at the same time. It is
required for dispatching SOAP calls. The name of the module will be defined
depending on the protocol specific for the endpoint. The prefix
SOAP::Transport
will be prepended, the module will be loaded and object of
class (with appended ::Client
) will be created.
For example, for http://localhost/, the class for creating objects will
look for SOAP::Transport:HTTP::Client
;
In addition to endpoint parameter, proxy()
can accept any transport specific
parameters that could be passed as name => value pairs. For example, to
specify proxy settings for HTTP protocol you may do:
$soap->proxy('http://endpoint.server/', proxy => ['http' => 'http://my.proxy.server/']);
Notice that since proxy (second one) expects to get more than one parameter you should wrap them in array.
Another useful example can be the client that is sensitive to cookie-based authentication. You can provide this with:
$soap->proxy('http://localhost/', cookie_jar => HTTP::Cookies->new(ignore_discard => 1));
You may specify timeout for HTTP transport with following code:
$soap->proxy('http://localhost/', timeout => 5);
endpoint()
proxy()
first. No checks for protocol equivalence will be made.
outputxml()
true
, all
methods will return unprocessed, raw XML code. You can parse it with
XML::Parser, SOAP::Deserializer or any other appropriate module.
autotype()
serializer->autotype()
. This lets you specify whether
the serializer will try to make autotyping for you or not. Default setting
is true
.
readable()
serializer->readable()
. This lets you specify the format
for the generated XML code. Carriage returns <CR> and indentation will be
added for readability. Useful in the case you want to see the generated code
in a debugger. By default, there are no additional characters in generated
XML code.
namespace()
serializer->namespace()
. This lets you specify the default
namespace for generated envelopes ('SOAP-ENV'
by default).
encodingspace()
serializer->encodingspace()
. This lets you specify the
default encoding namespace for generated envelopes ('SOAP-ENC'
by default).
encoding()
serializer->encoding()
. This lets you specify the encoding
for generated envelopes. It does not actually change envelope
encoding, it will just modify the XML declaration ('UTF-8'
by default).
Use undef
value to not generate XML declaration.
typelookup()
serializer->typelookup()
. This gives you access to
the typelookup
table that is used for autotyping. For more information
see SOAP::Serializer.
uri()
serializer->uri()
. This lets you specify the uri for SOAP
methods. Nothing is specified by default and your call will definitely fail
if you don't specify the required uri.
WARNING: URIs are just identifiers. They may look like URLs, but they are not guaranteed to point to anywhere and shouldn't be used as such pointers. URIs assume to be unique within the space of all XML documents, so consider them as unique identifiers and nothing else.
multirefinplace()
serializer->multirefinplace()
. If true, the serializer will
put values for multireferences in the first occurrence of the reference.
Otherwise it will be encoded as top independent element, right after method
element inside Body
. Default value is false
.
header()
Shortcut for serializer->header()
. This lets you specify the header for
generated envelopes. You can specify root
, mustUnderstand
or any
other header using SOAP::Data class:
$serializer = SOAP::Serializer->envelope('method' => 'mymethod', 1, SOAP::Header->name(t1 => 5)->mustUnderstand(1), SOAP::Header->name(t2 => 7)->mustUnderstand(2), );
will be serialized into:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope ...attributes skipped> <SOAP-ENV:Header> <t1 xsi:type="xsd:int" SOAP-ENV:mustUnderstand="1">5</t1> <t2 xsi:type="xsd:int" SOAP-ENV:mustUnderstand="1">7</t2> </SOAP-ENV:Header> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <namesp1:mymethod xmlns:namesp1="urn:SOAP__Serializer"> <c-gensym6 xsi:type="xsd:int">1</c-gensym6> </namesp1:mymethod> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
You can mix SOAP::Header
parameters with other parameters and you can also
return SOAP::Header
parameters as a result of a remote call. They will be
placed into the header. See My::Parameters::addheader
as an example.
on_action()
on_action event
. It is triggered when
creating SOAPAction. The default handler will set SOAPAction to
"uri#method"
. You can change this behavior globally
(see DEFAULT SETTINGS) or locally, for a particular object.
on_fault()
on_fault
event. The default behavior is
to die on an transport error and to do nothing on other error conditions. You
may change this behavior globally (see DEFAULT SETTINGS) or locally, for a
particular object.
on_debug()
on_debug event
. Default behavior is to
do nothing. Use +trace/+debug
option for SOAP::Lite instead. If you use if
be warned that since this method is just interface to +trace/+debug
it has
global effect, so if you install it for one object it'll be in effect for
all subsequent calls (even for other objects).
on_nonserialized()
on_nonserialized event
. The default
behavior is to produce a warning if warnings are on for everything that cannot
be properly serialized (like CODE references or GLOBs).
call()
SOAP::Lite->new(...)->method(@parameters)
, but call()
gives
you several additional options:
call()
interface:
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> call('myprefix:method' => @parameters) -> result;
This example will work on client side only. If you want to change prefix on server side you should override default serializer. See examples/server/soap.* for examples.
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> call(new => @parameters) -> result;
my $obj = CLASS->new(@parameters); print $obj->method;
However, because of side effects autodispatch
has, it's not always possible to use this syntax. call()
provides you with
alternative:
# you should specify uri() my $soap = SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://my.own.site/CLASS') # <<< CLASS goes here # ..... other parameters ;
my $obj = $soap->call(new => @parameters)->result; print $soap->call(method => $obj)->result; # $obj object will be updated here if necessary, # as if you call $obj->method() and method() updates $obj
# Update of modified object MAY not work if server on another side # is not SOAP::Lite
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> call(SOAP::Data->name('method')->attr({xmlns => 'mynamespace'}) => @parameters) -> result;
You can specify any attibutes and name
of SOAP::Data
element becomes
name of method. Everything else except attributes is ignored and parameters
should be provided as usual.
Be warned, that though you have more control using this method, you should
specify namespace attribute for method explicitely, even if you made uri()
call earlier. So, if you have to have namespace on method element, instead of:
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> uri('mynamespace') # will be ignored -> call(SOAP::Data->name('method') => @parameters) -> result;
do
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> call(SOAP::Data->name('method')->attr({xmlns => 'mynamespace'}) => @parameters) -> result;
because in the former call uri()
will be ignored and namespace won't be
specified. If you run script with -w
option (as recommended) SOAP::Lite
gives you a warning:
URI is not provided as attribute for method (method)
Moreover, it'll become fatal error if you try to call it with prefixed name:
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> uri('mynamespace') # will be ignored -> call(SOAP::Data->name('a:method') => @parameters) -> result;
gives you:
Can't find namespace for method (a:method)
because nothing is associated with prefix 'a'
.
One more comment. One case when SOAP::Lite will change something that you specified is when you specified prefixed name and empty namespace name:
print SOAP::Lite -> new(....) -> uri('') -> call('a:method' => @parameters) -> result;
This code will generate:
<method xmlns="">....</method>
instead of
<a:method xmlns:a="">....</method>
because later is not allowed according to XML Namespace specification.
In all other aspects ->call(mymethod => @parameters)
is just a
synonim for ->mymethod(@parameters)
.
self()
use SOAP::Lite ...
interface. Both class method and object method return
reference to global object, so:
use SOAP::Lite proxy => 'http://my.global.server' ;
my $soap = SOAP::Lite->proxy('http://my.local.server');
print $soap->self->proxy;
prints 'http://my.global.server'
(the same as SOAP::Lite->self->proxy
).
See DEFAULT SETTINGS for more information.
dispatch_from()
use SOAP::Lite ...
clause and should be specified first:
use SOAP::Lite dispatch_from => ['A', 'B'], # use "dispatch_from => 'A'" for one class uri => ...., proxy => ...., ;
A->a; B->b;
You can use this class if you want to specify a value, a name, atype, a uri or
attributes for SOAP elements (use value()
, name()
, type()
,
uri()
and attr()
methods correspondingly).
For example, SOAP::Data->name('abc')->value(123)
will be serialized
into <abc>123</abc>
, as well as will SOAP::Data->name(abc => 123)
.
Each of them (except the value()
method) can accept a value as the second
parameter. All methods return the current value if you call them without
parameters. The return the object otherwise, so you can stack them. See tests
for more examples. You can import these methods with:
SOAP::Data->import('name');
or
import SOAP::Data 'name';
and then use name(abc => 123)
for brevity.
An interface for specific attributes is also provided. You can use the actor()
,
mustUnderstand()
, encodingStyle()
and root()
methods to set/get
values of the correspondent attributes.
SOAP::Data ->name(c => 3) ->encodingStyle('http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/literalxml')
will be serialized into:
<c SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/literalxml" xsi:type="xsd:int">3</c>
Usually you don't need to interact directly with this module. The only case when you need it, it when using autotyping. This feature lets you specify types for your data according to your needs as well as to introduce new data types (like ordered hash for example).
You can specify a type with SOAP::Data->type(float => 123)
. During
the serialization stage the module will try to serialize your data with the
as_float
method. It then calls the typecast
method (you can override it
or inherit your own class from SOAP::Data) and only then it will try to
serialize it according to data type (SCALAR
, ARRAY
or HASH
). For example:
SOAP::Data->type('ordered_hash' => [a => 1, b => 2])
will be serialized as an ordered hash, using the as_ordered_hash
method.
If you do not specify a type directly, the serialization module will try
to autodefine the type for you according to the typelookup
hash. It contains
the type name as key and the following 3-element array as value:
priority, check_function (CODE reference), typecast function (METHOD name or CODE reference)
For example, if you want to add uriReference
to autodefined types,
you should add something like this:
$s->typelookup->{uriReference} = [11, sub { $_[0] =~ m!^http://! }, 'as_uriReference'];
and add the as_uriReference
method to the SOAP::Serializer class:
sub SOAP::Serializer::as_uriReference { my $self = shift; my($value, $name, $type, $attr) = @_; return [$name, {'xsi:type' => 'xsd:uriReference', %$attr}, $value]; }
The specified methods will work for both autotyping and direct typing, so you can use either
SOAP::Data->type(uriReference => 'http://yahoo.com')>
or just
'http://yahoo.com'
and it will be serialized into the same type. For more examples see as_*
methods in SOAP::Serializer.
The SOAP::Serializer provides you with autotype()
, readable()
, namespace()
,
encodingspace()
, encoding()
, typelookup()
, uri()
, multirefinplace()
and
envelope()
methods. All methods (except envelope()
) are described in the
SOAP::Lite section.
envelope()
envelope(method => 'methodname', @parameters);
or
method('methodname', @parameters);
Lets you build a request/response envelope.
envelope(fault => 'faultcode', 'faultstring', $details);
or
fault('faultcode', 'faultstring', $details);
Lets you build a fault envelope. Faultcode will be properly qualified and details could be string or object.
envelope(freeform => 'something that I want to serialize');
or
freeform('something that I want to serialize'); Reserved for nonRPC calls. Lets you build your own payload inside a SOAP envelope. All SOAP 1.1 specification rules are enforced, except method specific ones. See UDDI::Lite as example.
For more examples see tests and SOAP::Transport::HTTP.pm
All calls you are making through object oriented interface will return SOAP::SOM object, and you can access actual values with it. Next example gives you brief overview of the class:
my $soap = SOAP::Lite .....; my $som = $soap->method(@parameters);
if ($som->fault) { # will be defined if Fault element is in the message print $som->faultdetail; # returns value of 'detail' element as # string or object $som->faultcode; # $som->faultstring; # also available $som->faultactor; # } else { $som->result; # gives you access to result of call # it could be any data structure, for example reference # to array if server didi something like: return [1,2]; $som->paramsout; # gives you access to out parameters if any # for example, you'll get array (1,2) if # server returns ([1,2], 1, 2); # [1,2] will be returned as $som->result # and $som->paramsall will return ([1,2], 1, 2) # see section IN/OUT, OUT PARAMETERS AND AUTOBINDING # for more information
$som->paramsall; # gives access to result AND out parameters (if any) # and returns them as one array $som->valueof('//myelement'); # returns value(s) (as perl data) of # 'myelement' if any. All elements in array # context and only first one in scalar $h = $som->headerof('//myheader'); # returns element as SOAP::Header, so # you can access attributes and values # with $h->mustUnderstand, $h->actor # or $h->attr (for all attributes) } SOAP::SOM object gives you access to the deserialized envelope via several methods. All methods accept a node path (similar to XPath notations). SOM interprets '/' as the root node, '//' as relative location path ('//Body' will find all bodies in document, as well as '/Envelope//nums' will find all 'nums' nodes under Envelope node), '[num]' as node number and '[op num]' with C<op> being a comparison operator ('<', '>', '<=', '>=', '!', '=').
All nodes in nodeset will be returned in document order.
match()
valueof()
and dataof()
can be used to get
value(s)
of matched node(s).
valueof()
$som->match('/Envelope/Body/[1]'); # match method $som->valueof('[1]'); # result $som->valueof('[2]'); # first out parameter (if present)
The returned value depends on the context. In a scalar context it will return the first element from matched nodeset. In an array context it will return all matched elements.
dataof()
valueof()
, but it returns a SOAP::Data object, so you can get
access to the name, the type and attributes of an element.
headerof()
dataof()
, but it returns SOAP::Header object, so you can get
access to the name, the type and attributes of an element. Can be used for
modifying headers (if you want to see updated header inside Header element,
it's better to use this method instead of dataof()
method).
namespaceuriof()
<a xmlns='http://my.namespace'> <b> value </b> </a>
this method will return same value for 'b' element as for 'a'.
SOAP::SOM also provides methods for direct access to the envelope, the body,
methods and parameters (both in and out). All these methods return real
values (in most cases it will be a hash reference), if called as object
method. Returned values also depend on context: in an array context it will
return an array of values and in scalar context it will return the first
element. So, if you want to access the first output parameter, you can call
$param = $som->paramsout
;
and you will get it regardless of the actual number of output parameters.
If you call it as class function (for example, SOAP::SOM::method)
it returns an XPath string that matches the current element
('/Envelope/Body/[1]' in case of 'method'). The method will return undef
if not present OR if you try to access an undefined element. To distinguish
between these two cases you can first access the match()
method that
will return true/false in a boolean context and then get the real value:
if ($som->match('//myparameter')) { $value = $som->valueof; # can be undef too } else { # doesn't exist }
root()
$som->valueof('/')
does.
envelope()
Envelope
element. Keys in this hash will be
'Header' (if present), 'Body' and any other (optional) elements. Values will
be the deserialized header, body, and elements, respectively.
If called as function (SOAP::SOM::envelope
) it will return a Xpath string
that matches the envelope content. Useful when you want just match it and
then iterate over the content by yourself. Example:
if ($som->match(SOAP::SOM::envelope)) { $som->valueof('Header'); # should give access to header if present $som->valueof('Body'); # should give access to body } else { # hm, are we doing SOAP or what? }
header()
Header
element. If you want to access all
attributes in the header use:
# get element as SOAP::Data object $transaction = $som->match(join '/', SOAP::SOM::header, 'transaction')->dataof; # then you can access all attributes of 'transaction' element $transaction->attr;
headers()
header()
and headers()
methods is that the first gives you access
to the whole header and second to the headers inside the 'Header' tag:
$som->headerof(join '/', SOAP::SOM::header, '[1]'); # gives you first header as SOAP::Header object
($som->headers)[0]; # gives you value of the first header, same as $som->valueof(join '/', SOAP::SOM::header, '[1]');
$som->header->{name_of_your_header_here} # gives you value of name_of_your_header_here
body()
Body
element.
fault()
Fault
element: faultcode
, faultstring
and
detail
. If Fault
element is present, result()
, paramsin()
,
paramsout()
and method()
will return an undef.
faultcode()
faultcode
element if present and undef otherwise.
faultstring()
faultstring
element if present and undef otherwise.
faultactor()
faultactor
element if present and undef otherwise.
faultdetail()
detail
element if present and undef otherwise.
method()
result()
result
of the method call. In fact, it will return
the first child element (in document order) of the method element.
paramsin()
value(s)
of all passed parameters.
paramsout()
value(s)
of the output parameters.
paramsall()
value(s)
of the result AND output parameters as one array.
SOAP::Schema gives you ability to load schemas and create stubs according to these schemas. Different syntaxes are provided:
use SOAP::Lite service => 'http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl', # service => 'file:/your/local/path/StockQuoteService.wsdl', # service => 'file:./StockQuoteService.wsdl', ; print getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
use SOAP::Lite; print SOAP::Lite -> service('http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl') -> getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
use SOAP::Lite; my $service = SOAP::Lite -> service('http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl'); print $service->getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
You can create stub with stubmaker script:
perl stubmaker.pl http://www.xmethods.net/sd/StockQuoteService.wsdl
and you'll be able to access SOAP services in one line:
perl "-MStockQuoteService qw(:all)" -le "print getQuote('MSFT')"
or dynamically:
perl "-MSOAP::Lite service=>'file:./quote.wsdl'" -le "print getQuote('MSFT')"
Other supported syntaxes with stub(s)
are:
use StockQuoteService ':all'; print getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
use StockQuoteService; print StockQuoteService->getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
use StockQuoteService; my $service = StockQuoteService->new; print $service->getQuote('MSFT'), "\n";
Support for schemas is limited for now. Though module was tested with dozen different schemas it won't understand complex objects and will work only with WSDL.
SOAP::Trace provides you with a trace/debug facility for the SOAP::Lite library. To activate it you need to specify a list of traceable events/parts of SOAP::Lite:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => qw(list of available traces here);
Available events are:
transport -- (client) access to request/response for transport layer dispatch -- (server) shows full name of dispatched call result -- (server) result of method call parameters -- (server) parameters for method call headers -- (server) headers of received message objects -- (both) new/DESTROY calls method -- (both) parameters for '->envelope(method =>' call fault -- (both) parameters for '->envelope(fault =>' call freeform -- (both) parameters for '->envelope(freeform =>' call trace -- (both) trace enters into some important functions debug -- (both) details about transport
For example:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => qw(method fault);
lets you output the parameter values for all your fault/normal envelopes onto STDERR. If you want to log it you can either redirect STDERR to some file
BEGIN { open(STDERR, '>>....'); }
or (preferably) define your own function for a particular event:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => method => sub {'log messages here'}, fault => \&log_faults;
You can share the same function for several events:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => method, fault => \&log_methods_and_faults;
Also you can use 'all' to get all available tracing and use '-' in front of an event to disable particular event:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => all, -transport; # to get all logging without transport messages
Finally,
use SOAP::Lite +trace;
will switch all debugging on.
You can use 'debug' instead of 'trace'. I prefer 'trace', others 'debug'.
Also on_debug
is available for backward compatibility, as in
use SOAP::Lite;
my $s = SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://tempuri.org/') -> proxy('http://beta.search.microsoft.com/search/MSComSearchService.asmx') -> on_debug(sub{print@_}) # show you request/response with headers ; print $s->GetVocabulary(SOAP::Data->name(Query => 'something')->uri('http://tempuri.org/')) ->valueof('//FOUND');
or switch it on individually, with
use SOAP::Lite +trace => debug;
or
use SOAP::Lite +trace => debug => sub {'do_what_I_want_here'};
Compare this with:
use SOAP::Lite +trace => transport; which gives you access to B<actual> request/response objects, so you can even set/read cookies or do whatever you want there.
The difference between debug
and transport
is that transport
will get
a HTTP::Request/HTTP::Response object and debug
will get a stringified request
(NOT OBJECT!). It can also be called in other places too.
This class gives you access to Fault generated on server side. To make a Fault message you might simply die on server side and SOAP processor will wrap you message as faultstring element and will transfer Fault on client side. But in some cases you need to have more control over this process and SOAP::Fault class gives it to you. To use it, simply die with SOAP::Fault object as a parameter:
die SOAP::Fault->faultcode('Server.Custom') # will be qualified ->faultstring('Died in server method') ->faultdetail(bless {code => 1} => 'BadError') ->faultactor('http://www.soaplite.com/custom');
faultdetail()
and faultactor()
methods are optional and since faultcode and
faultstring are required to represent fault message SOAP::Lite will use
default values ('Server' and 'Application error') if not specified.
This class gives you access to number of options that may affect behavior of SOAP::Lite objects. They are not true contstants, aren't they?
$SOAP::Constants::DO_NOT_USE_XML_PARSER = 1;
$DO_NOT_USE_CHARSET
to true.
$DO_NOT_CHECK_CONTENT_TYPE
when set to true will allow
you to accept those values as valid.
Though this feature looks similar to autodispatch they have (almost)
nothing in common. It lets you create default object and all objects
created after that will be cloned from default object and hence get its
properties. If you want to provide common proxy()
or uri()
settings for
all SOAP::Lite objects in your application you may do:
use SOAP::Lite proxy => 'http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi', uri => 'http://my.own.com/My/Examples' ;
my $soap1 = new SOAP::Lite; # will get the same proxy()/uri() as above print $soap1->getStateName(1)->result;
my $soap2 = SOAP::Lite->new; # same thing as above print $soap2->getStateName(2)->result;
# or you may override any settings you want my $soap3 = SOAP::Lite->proxy('http://localhost/'); print $soap3->getStateName(1)->result;
Any SOAP::Lite properties can be propagated this way. Changes in object
copies will not affect global settings and you may still change global
settings with SOAP::Lite->self
call which returns reference to
global object. Provided parameter will update this object and you can
even set it to undef
:
SOAP::Lite->self(undef);
The use SOAP::Lite
syntax also lets you specify default event handlers
for your code. If you have different SOAP objects and want to share the
same on_action()
(or on_fault()
for that matter) handler. You can
specify on_action()
during initialization for every object, but
you may also do:
use SOAP::Lite on_action => sub {sprintf '%s#%s', @_} ;
and this handler will be the default handler for all your SOAP objects.
You can override it if you specify a handler for a particular object.
See t/*.t for example of on_fault()
handler.
Be warned, that since use ...
is executed at compile time all use
statements will be executed before script execution that can make
unexpected results. Consider code:
use SOAP::Lite proxy => 'http://localhost/';
print SOAP::Lite->getStateName(1)->result; use SOAP::Lite proxy => 'http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi';
print SOAP::Lite->getStateName(1)->result;
BOTH SOAP calls will go to 'http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi'
. If
you want to execute use
at run-time, put it in eval
:
eval "use SOAP::Lite proxy => 'http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi'; 1" or die;
or use
SOAP::Lite->self->proxy('http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi');
SOAP::Lite gives you access to all parameters (both in/out and out) and also does some additional work for you. Lets consider following example:
<mehodResponse> <res1>name1</res1> <res2>name2</res2> <res3>name3</res3> </mehodResponse>
In that case:
$result = $r->result; # gives you 'name1' $paramout1 = $r->paramsout; # gives you 'name2', because of scalar context $paramout1 = ($r->paramsout)[0]; # gives you 'name2' also $paramout2 = ($r->paramsout)[1]; # gives you 'name3'
or
@paramsout = $r->paramsout; # gives you ARRAY of out parameters $paramout1 = $paramsout[0]; # gives you 'res2', same as ($r->paramsout)[0] $paramout2 = $paramsout[1]; # gives you 'res3', same as ($r->paramsout)[1]
Generally, if server returns return (1,2,3)
you will get 1
as the result
and 2
and 3
as out parameters.
If the server returns return [1,2,3]
you will get an ARRAY from result()
and
undef
from paramsout()
.
Results can be arbitrary complex: they can be an array of something, they can
be objects, they can be anything and still be returned by result()
. If only
one parameter is returned, paramsout()
will return undef
.
But there is more. If you have in your output parameters a parameter with the same signature (name+type) as in the input parameters this parameter will be mapped into your input automatically. Example:
server:
sub mymethod { shift; # object/class reference my $param1 = shift; my $param2 = SOAP::Data->name('myparam' => shift() * 2); return $param1, $param2; }
client:
$a = 10; $b = SOAP::Data->name('myparam' => 12); $result = $soap->mymethod($a, $b);
After that, $result == 10 and $b->value == 24
! Magic? Sort of.
Autobinding gives it to you. That will work with objects also with
one difference: you do not need to worry about the name and the type of
object parameter. Consider the PingPong
example (examples/My/PingPong.pm and
examples/pingpong.pl):
server:
package My::PingPong;
sub new { my $self = shift; my $class = ref($self) || $self; bless {_num=>shift} => $class; }
sub next { my $self = shift; $self->{_num}++; }
client:
use SOAP::Lite +autodispatch => uri => 'urn:', proxy => 'http://localhost/' ;
my $p = My::PingPong->new(10); # $p->{_num} is 10 now, real object returned print $p->next, "\n"; # $p->{_num} is 11 now!, object autobinded
WARNING: autodispatch
feature can have side effects for your application
and can affect functionality of other modules/libraries because of overloading
UNIVERSAL::AUTOLOAD. All unresolved calls will be dispatched as SOAP calls,
however it could be not what you want in some cases. If so, consider using
object interface (see implementation of OO interface
).
SOAP::Lite provides an autodispatching feature that lets you create code which looks the same for local and remote access.
For example:
use SOAP::Lite +autodispatch => uri => 'urn:/My/Examples', proxy => 'http://localhost/' ;
tells SOAP to 'autodispatch' all calls to the 'http://localhost/' endpoint with the 'urn:/My/Examples' uri. All consequent method calls can look like:
print getStateName(1), "\n"; print getStateNames(12,24,26,13), "\n"; print getStateList([11,12,13,42])->[0], "\n"; print getStateStruct({item1 => 10, item2 => 4})->{item2}, "\n";
As you can see, there is no SOAP specific coding at all.
The same logic will work for objects as well:
print "Session iterator\n"; my $p = My::SessionIterator->new(10); print $p->next, "\n"; print $p->next, "\n";
This will access the remote My::SessionIterator module, gets an object, and then calls remote methods again. The object will be transferred to the server, the method is executed there and the result (and the modified object!) will be transferred back to the client.
Autodispatch will work only if you do not have the same method in your
code. For example, if you have use My::SessionIterator
somewhere in your
code of our previous example, all methods will be resolved locally and no
SOAP calls will be done. If you want to get access to remote objects/methods
even in that case, use SOAP::
prefix to your methods, like:
print $p->SOAP::next, "\n";
See pingpong.pl
for example of a script, that works with the same object
locally and remotely.
SOAP::
prefix also gives you ability to access methods that have the same
name as methods of SOAP::Lite itself. For example, you want to call method
new()
for your class My::PingPong
through OO interface.
First attempt could be:
my $s = SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://www.soaplite.com/My/PingPong') -> proxy('http://localhost/cgi-bin/soap.cgi') ; my $obj = $s->new(10);
but it won't work, because SOAP::Lite has method new()
itself. To provide
a hint, you should use SOAP::
prefix and call will be dispatched remotely:
my $obj = $s->SOAP::new(10);
You can mix autodispatch and usual SOAP calls in the same code if
you need it. Keep in mind, that calls with SOAP:: prefix should always be a
method call, so if you want to call functions, use SOAP->myfunction()
instead of SOAP::myfunction()
.
Be warned though Perl has very flexible syntax some versions will complain
Bareword "autodispatch" not allowed while "strict subs" in use ...
if you try to put 'autodispatch' and '=>' on separate lines. So, keep them on the same line, or put 'autodispatch' in quotes:
use SOAP::Lite 'autodispatch' # DON'T use plus in this case => .... ;
SOAP::Lite gives you direct access to all headers and the whole envelope on the server side. Consider the following code from My::Parameters.pm:
sub byname { my($a, $b, $c) = @{pop->method}{qw(a b c)}; return "a=$a, b=$b, c=$c"; }
You will get this functionality ONLY if you inherit your class from the SOAP::Server::Parameters class. This should keep existing code working and provides this feature only when you need it.
Every method on server side will be called as class/object method, so it will get an object reference or a class name as the first parameter, then the method parameters, and then an envelope as SOAP::SOM object. Shortly:
$self [, @parameters] , $envelope
If you have a fixed number of parameters, you can do:
my $self = shift; my($param1, $param2) = @_;
and ignore the envelope. If you need access to the envelope you can do:
my $envelope = pop;
since the envelope is always the last element in the parameters list.
The byname()
method pop->method
will return a hash with
parameter names as hash keys and parameter values as hash values:
my($a, $b, $c) = @{pop->method}{qw(a b c)};
gives you by-name access to your parameters.
Let us scrutinize the deployment process. When designing your SOAP server you
can consider two kind of deployment: static and dynamic.
For both, static and dynamic, you should specify MODULE
,
MODULE::method
, method
or PATH/
when creating use
ing the
SOAP::Lite module. The difference between static and dynamic deployment is
that in case of 'dynamic', any module which is not present will be loaded on
demand. See the SECURITY section for detailed description.
Example for static deployment:
use SOAP::Transport::HTTP; use My::Examples; # module is preloaded
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI # deployed module should be present here or client will get 'access denied' -> dispatch_to('My::Examples') -> handle;
Example for dynamic deployment:
use SOAP::Transport::HTTP; # name is unknown, module will be loaded on demand
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI # deployed module should be present here or client will get 'access denied' -> dispatch_to('/Your/Path/To/Deployed/Modules', 'My::Examples') -> handle;
For static deployment you should specify the MODULE name directly.
For dynamic deployment you can specify the name either directly (in that
case it will be require
d without any restriction) or indirectly, with a PATH
In that case, the ONLY path that will be available will be the PATH given
to the dispatch_to()
method). For information how to handle this situation
see SECURITY section.
You should also use static binding when you have several different classes in one file and want to make them available for SOAP calls.
SUMMARY:
dispatch_to( # dynamic dispatch that allows access to ALL modules in specified directory PATH/TO/MODULES # 1. specifies directory # -- AND -- # 2. gives access to ALL modules in this directory without limits
# static dispatch that allows access to ALL methods in particular MODULE MODULE # 1. gives access to particular module (all available methods) # PREREQUISITES: # module should be loaded manually (for example with 'use ...') # -- OR -- # you can still specify it in PATH/TO/MODULES
# static dispatch that allows access to particular method ONLY MODULE::method # same as MODULE, but gives access to ONLY particular method, # so there is not much sense to use both MODULE and MODULE::method # for the same MODULE )
In addition to this SOAP::Lite also supports experimental syntax that allows you bind specific URL or SOAPAction to CLASS/MODULE or object:
dispatch_with({ URI => MODULE, # 'http://www.soaplite.com/' => 'My::Class', SOAPAction => MODULE, # 'http://www.soaplite.com/method' => 'Another::Class', URI => object, # 'http://www.soaplite.com/obj' => My::Class->new, })
URI is checked before SOAPAction. You may use both dispatch_to()
and
dispatch_with()
syntax and dispatch_with()
has more priority, so
first checked URI, then SOAPAction and only then will be checked
dispatch_to()
. See t/03-server.t for more information and examples.
Due to security reasons, the current path for perl modules (@INC
) will be disabled
once you have chosen dynamic deployment and specified your own PATH/
.
If you want to access other modules in your included package you have
several options:
use MODULE; $server->dispatch_to('MODULE');
It can be useful also when you want to import something specific from the deployed modules:
use MODULE qw(import_list);Change
use
to require
. The path is unavailable only during
the initialization part, and it is available again during execution.
So, if you do require
somewhere in your package, it will work.
Same thing, but you can do:
eval 'use MODULE qw(import_list)'; die if $@;Assign a
@INC
directory in your package and then make use
.
Don't forget to put @INC
in BEGIN{}
block or it won't work:
BEGIN { @INC = qw(my_directory); use MODULE }
SOAP::Lite provides you option for enabling compression on wire (for HTTP transport only). Both server and client should support this capability, but this logic should be absolutely transparent for your application.
Compression can be enabled by specifying threshold for compression on client or server side:
print SOAP::Lite -> uri('http://localhost/My/Parameters') -> proxy('http://localhost/', options => {compress_threshold => 10000}) -> echo(1 x 10000) -> result ;
my $server = SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI -> dispatch_to('My::Parameters') -> options({compress_threshold => 10000}) -> handle;
For more information see COMPRESSION section in HTTP transport documentation.
SOAP::Lite implements an experimental (yet functional) support for
objects-by-reference. You should not see any difference on the client side
when using this. On the server side you should specify the names of the
classes you want to be returned by reference (instead of by value) in the
objects_by_reference()
method for your server implementation (see
soap.pop3, soap.daemon and Apache.pm).
Garbage collection is done on the server side (not earlier than after 600 seconds of inactivity time), and you can overload the default behavior with specific functions for any particular class.
Binding does not have any special syntax and is implemented on server side
(see the differences between My::SessionIterator and My::PersistentIterator).
On the client side, objects will have same type/class as before
(My::SessionIterator->new()
will return an object of class
My::SessionIterator). However, this object is just a stub with an object ID
inside.
return SOAP::Data->name('myname') ->type('string') ->uri('http://tempuri.org/') ->value($output);
Use namespace that you specify for URI instead of 'http://tempuri.org/'.
In addition see comment about default incoding in .NET Web Services below.
To use SOAP::Lite client and .NET server
on_action(sub{join '', @_})
.
$SOAP::Constants::DO_NOT_USE_CHARSET = 1
somewhere in your code
after use SOAP::Lite
if you are getting error:
Server found request content type to be 'text/xml; charset=utf-8', but expected 'text/xml'
SOAP::Data->name(Query => 'biztalk')->uri('http://tempuri.org/')
instead of
SOAP::Data->name('Query' => 'biztalk')
.
Example of SOAPsh call (all parameters should be in one line):
> perl SOAPsh.pl "http://beta.search.microsoft.com/search/mscomsearchservice.asmx" "http://tempuri.org/" "on_action(sub{join '', @_})" "GetVocabulary(SOAP::Data->name(Query => 'biztalk')->uri('http://tempuri.org/'))"
my @rc = $soap->call(add => @parms)->result; # -- OR -- my @rc = $soap->add(@parms)->result;
use
my $method = SOAP::Data->name('add') ->attr({xmlns => 'http://tempuri.org/'}); my @rc = $soap->call($method => @parms)->result;
SOAP::Lite uses the SOAP encoding (section 5 of the soap 1.1 spec), and the default for .NET Web Services is to use a literal encoding. So elements in the request are unqualified, but your service expects them to be qualified. .Net Web Services has a way for you to change the expected message format, which should allow you to get your interop working. At the top of your class in the asmx, add this attribute (for Beta 1):
[SoapService(Style=SoapServiceStyle.RPC)]
Another source said it might be this attribute (for Beta 2):
[SoapRpcService]
Full Web Service text may look like:
<%@ WebService Language="C#" Class="Test" %> using System; using System.Web.Services; using System.Xml.Serialization;
[SoapService(Style=SoapServiceStyle.RPC)] public class Test : WebService { [WebMethod] public int add(int a, int b) { return a + b; } }
Another example from Kirill Gavrylyuk <kirillg@microsoft.com>:
``You can insert [SoapRpcService()] attribute either on your class or on operation level''.
<%@ WebService Language=CS class="DataType.StringTest"%> namespace DataType {
using System; using System.Web.Services; using System.Web.Services.Protocols; using System.Web.Services.Description; [SoapRpcService()] public class StringTest: WebService { [WebMethod] [SoapRpcMethod()] public string RetString(string x) { return(x); } } }
Example from Yann Christensen <yannc@microsoft.com>:
using System; using System.Web.Services; using System.Web.Services.Protocols;
namespace Currency { [WebService(Namespace="http://www.yourdomain.com/example")] [SoapRpcService] public class Exchange { [WebMethod] public double getRate(String country, String country2) { return 122.69; } } }
Thanks to Petr Janata <petr.janata@i.cz>, Stefan Pharies <stefanph@microsoft.com>, Brian Jepson <bjepson@jepstone.net>, and others for description and examples.
(http://www.megginson.com/SAX/index.html).
That means that in some cases SOAP messages created by SOAP::Lite may not be parsed properly by SAX2/Java parser, because Envelope element contains namespace declarations and attributes that depends on this declarations. According to XML specification order of these attributes is not significant. SOAP::Lite does NOT have a problem parsing such messages.
Thanks to Steve Alpert (Steve_Alpert@idx.com) for pointing on it.
char()
callback for every portion of processed stream, but individually for
every processed entity or newline. It can lead to lot of calls and additional
memory manager expenses even for small messages. By contrast, XML messages
which are encoded as base64, don't have this problem and difference in
processing time can be significant. For XML encoded string that has about 20
lines and 30 tags, number of call could be about 100 instead of one for
the same string encoded as base64.
Since it is parser's feature there is NO fix for this behavior (let me know if you find one), especially because you need to parse message you already got (and you cannot control content of this message), however, if your are in charge for both ends of processing you can switch encoding to base64 on sender's side. It will definitely work with SOAP::Lite and it may work with other toolkits/implementations also, but obviously I cannot guarantee that.
If you want to encode specific string as base64, just do
SOAP::Data->type(base64 => $string)
either on client or on server
side. If you want change behavior for specific instance of SOAP::Lite, you
may subclass SOAP::Serializer
, override as_string()
method that is
responsible for string encoding (take a look into as_base64()
) and
specify new serializer class for your SOAP::Lite object with:
my $soap = new SOAP::Lite serializer => My::Serializer->new, ..... other parameters
or on server side:
my $server = new SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Daemon # or any other server serializer => My::Serializer->new, ..... other parameters
If you want to change this behavior for all instances of SOAP::Lite, just
substitute as_string()
method with as_base64()
somewhere in your
code after use SOAP::Lite
and before actual processing/sending:
*SOAP::Serializer::as_string = \&SOAP::Serializer::as_base64;
Be warned that last two methods will affect all strings and convert them into base64 encoded. It doesn't make any difference for SOAP::Lite, but it may make a difference for other toolkits.
As soon as you have telnet access to the box and XML::Parser is already installed there (or you have Perl 5.6 and can use XML::Parser::Lite) you may install your own copy of SOAP::Lite even if hosting provider doesn't want to do it.
Setup PERL5LIB
environment variable. Depending on your shell it may
look like:
PERL5LIB=/you/home/directory/lib; export PERL5LIB
lib
here is the name of directory where all libraries will be installed
under your home directory.
Run CPAN module with
perl -MCPAN -e shell
and run three commands from CPAN shell
> o conf make_arg -I~/lib > o conf make_install_arg -I~/lib > o conf makepl_arg LIB=~/lib PREFIX=~ INSTALLMAN1DIR=~/man/man1 INSTALLMAN3DIR=~/man/man3
LIB
will specify directory where all libraries will reside.
PREFIX
will specify prefix for all directories (like lib, bin, man,
though it doesn't work in all cases for some reason).
INSTALLMAN1DIR
and INSTALLMAN3DIR
specify directories for manuals
(if you don't specify them, install will fail because it'll try to setup
it in default directory and you don't have permissions for that).
Then run:
> install SOAP::Lite
Now in your scripts you need to specify:
use lib '/your/home/directory/lib';
somewhere before 'use SOAP::Lite;'
Compiled XML::Parser for MacOS could be found here: http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/authors/id/A/AS/ASANDSTRM/XML-Parser-2.27-bin-1-MacOS.tgz
You can download the latest version SOAP::Lite for Unix or SOAP::Lite for Win32 from http://soaplite.com/ . SOAP::Lite is available also from CPAN ( http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=SOAP-Lite ). You are very welcome to write mail to the author (paulclinger@yahoo.com) with your comments, suggestions, bug reports and complaints.
the SOAP manpage SOAP/Perl library from Keith Brown ( http://www.develop.com/soap/ ) or ( http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=SOAP )
A lot of thanks to Tony Hong <thong@xmethods.net>, Petr Janata <petr.janata@i.cz>, Murray Nesbitt <murray@ActiveState.com>, Robert Barta <rho@bigpond.net.au>, Gisle Aas <gisle@ActiveState.com>, Carl K. Cunningham <cc@roberts.de>, Graham Glass <graham-glass@mindspring.com>, Chris Radcliff <chris@velocigen.com>, Arun Kumar <u_arunkumar@yahoo.com>, and many many others for provided help, feedback, support, patches and comments.
Copyright (C) 2000-2001 Paul Kulchenko. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Paul Kulchenko (paulclinger@yahoo.com)
SOAP::Lite - Client and server side SOAP implementation |