PHP SOAP WSDL Mode returning Null on method Calls

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22116415

  •  18-10-2022
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Question

I have been trying to learn SOAP in PHP and non-wsdl mode works nicely. I've Included them for information purposes for people seeking to learn.

Class to expose library.php

<?php
  class Library {
    public function getDwarves(){
      $dwarves = array("Bashful","Doc","Dopey");
        return $dwarves;
      }
      public function greetUser($name){
         return array("message"=>"hello,".$name);
      }
    }
 ?>

Non-wsdl Client

<?php
try{
  $options = array("location" => "http://192.168.1.20/ws/server.php" , "uri" => "http://192.168.1.20/ws");
 $client=new SoapClient(null,$options);
  $dwarves = $client->getDwarves();
  echo nl2br("Result of getDwarves:\n"); 
  var_dump($dwarves);
  echo nl2br("\n\n");

  $greeting = $client->greetUser("Fairmutex");
  echo nl2br("Result of greetUser:\n"); 
  var_dump($greeting);
  echo nl2br("\n\n");

}catch(SoapFault $e){

 var_dump($e);
 echo  "<br/>".$e->getMessage()."<br/>"; 

}
?>

Non-wsdl Server

<?php
   require('library.php');
   $options = array("uri" => "http://192.168.1.20");
   $server = new SoapServer(null,$options);
   $server->setClass('Library');
   $server->handle();
?>

However when WSDL is introduced to the picture the server is returning NULL as result for method calls. Can anyone help me identifying what I am doing wrong?

server.php

<?php
   require('library.php');
   $server = new SoapServer("wsdl");
   $server->setClass('Library');
   $server->handle();
?>

client.php

<?php
try{

  $client=new SoapClient("http://192.168.1.20/ws/wsdl",array( "trace" => 1 ) );
  $dwarves = $client->getDwarves();
  echo nl2br("Result of getDwarves:\n"); 
  var_dump($dwarves);
  echo nl2br("\n\n");

  $greeting = $client->greetUser("Fairmutex");
  echo nl2br("Result of greetUser:\n"); 
  var_dump($greeting);
  echo nl2br("\n\n");

}catch(SoapFault $e){

 var_dump($e);
 echo  "<br/>".$e->getMessage()."<br/>"; 

}
?>

client.php with debugging information

    <?php
try{
$client=new SoapClient("http://192.168.1.20/ws/wsdl",array( "trace" => 1 ) );
$dwarves = $client->getDwarves();

 echo nl2br("GetFunctions:\n");  var_dump($client->__getFunctions()); echo nl2br("\n\n");
 echo nl2br("GetTypes:\n");  var_dump($client->__getTypes()); echo nl2br("\n\n");
 echo nl2br("Request Header:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<",    $client->__getLastRequestHeaders())) . "\n");
 echo nl2br("REQUEST:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastRequest())) . "\n");
  echo nl2br("Response Header:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastResponseHeaders())) . "\n");
echo nl2br("Response:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastResponse())) . "\n");

echo nl2br("Result of getDwarves:\n"); 
 var_dump($dwarves);
 echo nl2br("\n\n");

 $greeting = $client->greetUser("Fairmutex");
 echo nl2br("REQUEST:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastRequest())) . "\n");
   echo nl2br("Response Header:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastResponseHeaders())) . "\n");
echo nl2br("Response:\n" . htmlentities(str_ireplace('><', ">\n<", $client->__getLastResponse())) . "\n");
echo nl2br("Result of greetUser:\n"); 
 var_dump($greeting);
 echo nl2br("\n\n");
}catch(SoapFault $e){
 var_dump($e);
 echo  "<br/>".$e->getMessage()."<br/>"; 
}
?>

wsdl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<definitions xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:typens="urn:LibraryWSDL" xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" name="LibraryWSDL" targetNamespace="urn:LibraryWSDL">
   <message name="getDwarves" />
   <message name="getDwarvesResponse" />
   <message name="greetUser">
      <part name="name" type="xsd:anyType" />
   </message>
   <message name="greetUserResponse" />
   <portType name="LibraryPortType">
      <operation name="getDwarves">
         <input message="typens:getDwarves" />
         <output message="typens:getDwarvesResponse" />
      </operation>
      <operation name="greetUser">
         <input message="typens:greetUser" />
         <output message="typens:greetUserResponse" />
      </operation>
   </portType>
   <binding name="LibraryBinding" type="typens:LibraryPortType">
      <soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http" />
      <operation name="getDwarves">
         <soap:operation soapAction="urn:LibraryAction" />
         <input>
            <soap:body namespace="urn:LibraryWSDL" use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" />
         </input>
         <output>
            <soap:body namespace="urn:LibraryWSDL" use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" />
         </output>
      </operation>
      <operation name="greetUser">
         <soap:operation soapAction="urn:LibraryAction" />
         <input>
            <soap:body namespace="urn:LibraryWSDL" use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" />
         </input>
         <output>
            <soap:body namespace="urn:LibraryWSDL" use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" />
         </output>
      </operation>
   </binding>
   <service name="LibraryWSDLService">
      <port name="LibraryPort" binding="typens:LibraryBinding">
         <soap:address location="http://192.168.1.20/ws/server.php" />
      </port>
   </service>
</definitions>

Paths:

http://192.168.1.20/ws/wsdl
http://192.168.1.20/ws/server.php
http://192.168.1.20/ws/client.php

Result from debugging information client

GetFunctions:
array(2) { [0]=> string(17) "void getDwarves()" [1]=> string(29) "void greetUser(anyType $name)" }

GetTypes:
array(0) { }

Request Header:
POST /ws/server.php HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.1.20
Connection: Keep-Alive
User-Agent: PHP-SOAP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
SOAPAction: "urn:LibraryAction"
Content-Length: 385


REQUEST:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="urn:LibraryWSDL" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:getDwarves/>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Response Header:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:45:39 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14
Content-Length: 393
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8

Response:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="urn:LibraryWSDL" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:getDwarvesResponse/>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Result of getDwarves:
NULL

REQUEST:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="urn:LibraryWSDL" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:greetUser>
<name xsi:type="xsd:string">Fairmutex</name>
</ns1:greetUser>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Response Header:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:45:39 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14
Content-Length: 392
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=99
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8

Response:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="urn:LibraryWSDL" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:greetUserResponse/>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Result of greetUser:
NULL
Was it helpful?

Solution

PHP SOAP can be very frustrating to work with as most of the errors you may likely encounter are ambiguous and hence, difficult to debug.

There are a couple of things that must be noted when working with PHP SOAP in WSDL mode. The input and output parameters of your PHP functions must be clearly defined both in the WSDL file (either in the "types" tag or in the "message" tag) and in your PHP code (as class definition).

These two requirements are missing from your implementation. Your debug output information ($client->__getFunctions()), also pointed out the errors as you will notice that the return "type" for method getDwarves() and greetUser() are both "void". This means that PHP SOAP will return null (void) when you call any of these methods even if your PHP function definition returns a value.

For more info, check out this simple tutorial on Creating PHP SOAP server in WSDL mode

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