How to use PHP and NuSOAP to connect to web services

02 Oct 2010

NuSOAP is a rewrite of SOAP contained in a set of PHP classes that don't require a PHP Extension (in contrast, SOAP requires that PHP be compiled with the "–enable-soap" option).

The examples below use the NuSOAP library to connect to a WSDL-based (Web Services Description Language) web service hosted on an IIS server:

To perform a function call without parameters or user authentication:

<?php

  //include the NuSOAP class file:
  require 'lib/nusoap.php';

  //instantiate the NuSOAP class and define the web service URL:
  $client = new nusoap_client('http://www.someserver.com/service.svc?wsdl', 'WSDL');

  //check if there were any instantiation errors, and if so stop execution with an error message:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    die("client construction error: {$error}\n");
  }

  //perform a function call without parameters:
  $answer = $client->call('TestFunction');

  //check if there were any call errors, and if so stop execution with some error messages:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    print_r($client->response);
    print_r($client->getDebug());
    die();
  }

  //output the response (in the form of a multidimensional array) from the function call:
  print_r($answer);

?>

To perform a function call without parameters but with user authentication:

<?php

  //include the NuSOAP class file:
  require 'lib/nusoap.php';

  //instantiate the NuSOAP class and define the web service URL:
  $client = new nusoap_client('http://www.someserver.com/service.svc?wsdl', 'WSDL');

  //check if there were any instantiation errors, and if so stop execution with an error message:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    die("client construction error: {$error}\n");
  }

  //authenticate to the service:
  $client->setCredentials('usern', 'passw', 'digest');

  //perform a function call without parameters:
  $answer = $client->call('TestFunction');

  //check if there were any call errors, and if so stop execution with some error messages:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    print_r($client->response);
    print_r($client->getDebug());
    die();
  }

  //output the response (in the form of a multidimensional array) from the function call:
  print_r($answer);

?>

To perform a function call with parameters and user authentication:

<?php

  //include the NuSOAP class file:
  require 'lib/nusoap.php';

  //instantiate the NuSOAP class and define the web service URL:
  $client = new nusoap_client('http://www.someserver.com/service.svc?wsdl', 'WSDL');

  //check if there were any instantiation errors, and if so stop execution with an error message:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    die("client construction error: {$error}\n");
  }

  //authenticate to the service:
  $client->setCredentials('usern', 'passw', 'digest');

  //perform a function call with parameters:
  $param = array('UserName' => 'usern',
                 'Password' => 'passw',
                 'GUID' => 'AAAAA-BBB-CCCCC-DD0',
                );

  $answer = $client->call('TestFunction', array('parameters' => $param), '', '', false, true);

  //check if there were any call errors, and if so stop execution with some error messages:
  $error = $client->getError();

  if ($error) {
    print_r($client->response);
    print_r($client->getDebug());
    die();
  }

  //output the response (in the form of a multidimensional array) from the function call:
  print_r($answer);

?>

After a function call has been made by any of the above examples, they will output the result as a multidimensional array:

Array
(
    [TestFunctionResult] => Array
        (
            [Client] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [_id] => 1
                            [_name] => Jack
                        )

                    [1] => Array
                        (
                            [_id] => 2
                            [_name] => Jill
                        )

                )

        )

)

The sample files bundled with NuSOAP include several examples of how the library can be used with different clients, including: