Complex SOAP::Lite requests - my rules for SOAP::Sanity!

Previously, I mentioned I'd come back to more complex request and response structures with SOAP::Lite.

Frankly, I haven't posted because I can't avoid the feeling that there's still a little more to unravel. Did I mention that good documentation is sparse? ;) Byrne and others have posted some good stuff (see for example the majordojo soaplite archive and this hands-on tour at builder.com), but mostly you'll find the experiences shared go along lines like "...after hacking around for a bit, I found that this worked...".

But is it possible to try and pin down at least a couple of guidelines for using SOAP::Data? Well, so far I can't claim to solving it all, but I am able to share a few anchors I've tried to plant for my own sanity!

My Rules for SOAP::Sanity

In the following "rules", $soap is a pre-initialised SOAP::Lite object, as in:
my $soap = SOAP::Lite->uri ( $serviceNs ) -> proxy ( $serviceUrl );

1. The value of a SOAP::Data element becomes the content of the XML entity.

It may seem bleeding obvious. Nevertheless, get this idea fixed in you head and it will help for more complex structures.

So if we are calling a "getHoroscope" service with the following request structure:

<getHoroscope>
<sign>Aries</sign>
</getHoroscope>

"Aries" is the value, i.e. the content, of the XML entity called "sign". Thus our request will look like this:

$data = SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Aries');
$som = $soap->getHoroscope( $data );

2. To create a hiearchy of entities, use references to a SOAP::Data structure.

In (1), the content of the entity was a simple string ("Aries"). Here we consider the case where we need the content to encapsulate more XML elements rather than just a string. For example a request with this structure:

<getHoroscope>
<astrology>
<sign>Aries</sign>
</astrology>
</getHoroscope>

Here "astrology" has an XML child element rather than a string value.
To achieve this, we set the value of the "astrology" element as a reference to the "sign" SOAP::Data object:

$data = SOAP::Data->name("astrology" =>
  \SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Aries') 
);
$som = $soap->getHoroscope( $data );

3. To handle multiple child entities, encapsuate as reference to a SOAP::Data collection.

In this case, we need our "astrology" element to have multiple children, for example:

<getHoroscope>
<astrology>
<sign>Aries</sign>
<sign>Pisces</sign>
</astrology>
</getHoroscope>

So a simple variation on (2). To achieve this, we collect the "Aries" and "Pisces" elements as a collection within an anonymous SOAP::Data object. We pass a reference to this object as the value of the "astrology" item.

$data = SOAP::Data->name("astrology" => 
  \SOAP::Data->value(
   SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Aries'), 
   SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Pisces') 
   )
);
$som = $soap->getHoroscope( $data );

4. Clearly distinguish method name structures from data.

This is perhaps just a style and clarity consideration. In the examples above, the method has been implicitly dispatched ("getHoroscope").
If you prefer (or need) to pass the method information to a SOAP::Lite call, I like to keep the method information distinct from the method data.

So for example, item (3) can be re-written (including some additional namespace handling) as:

$data = SOAP::Data->name("astrology" => 
  \SOAP::Data->value(
   SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Aries'), 
   SOAP::Data->name("sign" => 'Pisces') 
   )
);
$som = $soap->call( 
   SOAP::Data->name('x:getHoroscope')->attr({'xmlns:x' => $serviceNs})
   => $data 
);

I prefer to read this than have it all mangled together.

That brings me to the end of my list of rules! I am by no means confident that there aren't more useful guidelines to be added, or that in fact the ones I have proposed above will even stand the test of time.

Nevertheless, with these four ideas clearly in mind, I find I have a fair chance of sitting down to write a complex SOAP::Lite call correctly the first time, rather than the trial and error approach I used to be very familiar with!

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