Zend SOAP Server SOAP-ERROR:Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'X' : failed to load external entity 'X"

Question

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
        <SOAP-ENV:Fault>
            <faultcode>WSDL</faultcode>
            <faultstring>
            SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://testws.localhost/album/wsdl' : failed to load external entity "http://testws.localhost/album/wsdl"
            </faultstring>
        </SOAP-ENV:Fault>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

I am trying to create a simple test web service in php using Zend Framework 2.2.1. I am using XAMPP v1.8.2-0. The version of php installed is 5.4.16. I have followed the skeleton application tutorial at http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.0/en/user-guide/skeleton-application.html up to the point where I have a functioning controller.

The wsdl path is testws.localhost/album/wsdl or testws.localhost/album?wsdl The service is located at testws.localhost/album. 127.0.0.1 in place of testws.localhost makes no difference.

Visiting the WSDL url returns me what appears to be a valid WSDL file, XMLSpy loads/validates it. Visiting the service in browser results in the error response above, which does not give any detail as to why it cannot load the WSDL.

Saving the generated WSDL output to file and using the path to that, as well as generating it as text in php within the soap request method all generate the same error, couldnt load from 'X' : failed to load external entity 'X'. The WSDL file can be read from where it is in the application directory and echoed out.

I have spent multiple days trying to resolve this and looked at plenty of similar questions here and on the web but all of them either magically resolve themselves or have no accepted answer, and nothing suggested worked for me. The code is included below, if there is any other information required let me know, I am relatively inexperienced with zend framework / php / xampp and this has me stopped completely.

AlbumController.php

<?php
namespace Album\Controller;

require_once 'Soaptest.php';

use Zend\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Zend\View\Model\ViewModel;
use Zend\Soap\Server;
use Zend\Soap\AutoDiscover;

class AlbumController extends AbstractActionController
{
    private $_WSDL_URI = "http://testws.localhost/album/wsdl";
    private $_URI = "http://testws.localhost/album";

    public function indexAction()
    {    
        if(isset($_GET['wsdl'])) 
        {
            $this->handleWSDL();
        } 
        else 
        {
            $this->handleSOAP();
        }
        return $this->getResponse();
    }

    public function wsdlAction()
    {   
        $this->handleWSDL();
        return $this->getResponse();
    }

    private function handleWSDL() {
        $autodiscover = new AutoDiscover();
        $autodiscover->setUri('Soaptest');
        $autodiscover->setClass($this->_URI);
        $autodiscover->handle();
    }

    private function handleSOAP() {
        try 
        {
            $server = new Server($this->_WSDL_URI);
            $server->setClass('Soaptest');
            $server->handle();          
        } 
        catch (Exception $E) 
        {  
            $E->faultstring->dump("error.wsdl"); 
        }  
    }
}

Soaptest.php

<?php
class Soaptest {
    /**
     * This method returns a string
     * 
     * @param String $value
     * @return String
     */
    public function hello($value) {
        return "hi";
    }
}

in httpd-vhosts.conf

<VirtualHost testws.localhost:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/ws/ZendApp/public"
    ServerName testws.localhost
    ServerAlias www.testws.localhost
    SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV "development"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/ws/ZendApp/public">
        DirectoryIndex index.php
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

hosts file

127.0.0.1           testws.localhost localhost

wsdl xml

<definitions xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:tns="http://testws.localhost/album" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:soap12="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap12/" name="Soaptest" targetNamespace="http://testws.localhost/album">
    <types>
        <xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://testws.localhost/album"/>
    </types>
    <portType name="SoaptestPort">
        <operation name="hello">
            <documentation>This method returns a string</documentation>
            <input message="tns:helloIn"/>
            <output message="tns:helloOut"/>
        </operation>
    </portType>
    <binding name="SoaptestBinding" type="tns:SoaptestPort">
        <soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
        <operation name="hello">
            <soap:operation soapAction="http://testws.localhost/album#hello"/>
            <input>
                <soap:body use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" namespace="http://testws.localhost/album"/>
            </input>
            <output>
                <soap:body use="encoded" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" namespace="http://testws.localhost/album"/>
            </output>
        </operation>
    </binding>
    <service name="SoaptestService">
        <port name="SoaptestPort" binding="tns:SoaptestBinding">
            <soap:address location="http://testws.localhost/album"/>
        </port>
    </service>
    <message name="helloIn">
        <part name="value" type="xsd:string"/>
    </message>
    <message name="helloOut">
        <part name="return" type="xsd:string"/>
    </message>
</definitions>

Answer 1

It appears that there is not actually a real problem at all. Both a c# sample app I was creating and XMLSpy are able to read in the wsdl file and make requests to the service.

I am guessing that the error generated was due to the fact that my web browser was not sending a soap request, and that in order to process the wsdl file the soap server tries to match information from the request against the service description. I would have expected an error to come back about the lack of a valid soap request, rather than an error about a perfectly valid and available wsdl file. Not sure if this error is created by the zend soap server or the underlying php soap server that it uses.

So if anyone else sees this error, make sure you are testing with a proper soap client.

Answer 2

I think the problem is in your controller, first your $_URI must be

$_URI = "http://testws.localhost/album";

(i.e. with the http schema).

second you are passing the wrong argument to AutoDiscover, the first argument of the AutoDiscover is not the url, try replacing your handleWSDL method with this:

private function handleWSDL() {
    $autodiscover = new AutoDiscover();
    $autodiscover->setClass('Soaptest')
                 ->setUri($this->_URI);
    $autodiscover->handle();
}

Answer 3

i getting this error on Zend + Php

SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://wsdl...' : failed to load external entity "http://wsdl..."

and I found that the issue is cause by the server unable to access the URL. It is funny, but It happens where the server that hosting the webservice unable to curl/wget/read it own wsdl url.

Try cURL the wsdl URL and see whether u can get something back?