Remove tag, in submitting data to Soap Server with PHP

Actual result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://localhost/" 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:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
            <return xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Struct">
                <errorMsg xsi:type="xsd:string">Ok</errorMsg>
                <status xsi:type="xsd:string">0</status>
                <timeStamp xsi:type="xsd:string">2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00</timeStamp>
            </return>
        </ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Expected result without <return xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Struct"></return> tag.

I am doing it first time, and actually I know almost nothing about Soap Server, could you tell me, how can I remove return tag ?

this is the code on server side:

class PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse {
    public $errorMsg = "Ok";
    public $status = "0";
    public $timeStamp = "2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00";
}


class MyAPI {
    function PerformTransactionArguments() {
        return new PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse;
    }
}

$options=array('uri'=>'localhost/');
$server = new SoapServer(NULL,$options);
$server->setClass('MyAPI');
$server->handle();

Answer

In order to do what you want you must make a WSDL document and pass it both to the server and the client. Let’s start creating a WSDL document named wsdl-pruebas.wsdl with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<definitions name="TransactionArguments"
             xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
             xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
             xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
             xmlns:ns1="http://localhost/pruebas"
             targetNamespace="http://localhost/pruebas">
    <types>
        <xs:schema targetNamespace="http://localhost/pruebas">
            <xs:element name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
                <xs:complexType>
                    <xs:sequence>
                        <xs:element name="errorMsg" type="xs:string"/>
                        <xs:element name="status" type="xs:string"/>
                        <xs:element name="timeStamp" type="xs:string"/>
                    </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
            </xs:element>
        </xs:schema>
    </types>

    <message name="PerformTransactionArgumentsRequest"/>
    <message name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
        <part name="return" element="ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse"/>
    </message>

    <portType name="PerformTransactionArgumentsPortType">
        <operation name="PerformTransactionArguments">
            <input message="PerformTransactionArgumentsRequest"/>
            <output message="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse"/>
        </operation>
    </portType>

    <binding name="PerformTransactionArgumentsBinding" type="PerformTransactionArgumentsPortType">
        <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
        <operation name="PerformTransactionArguments">
            <soap:operation soapAction=""/>
            <input/>
            <output>
                <soap:body use="encoded" namespace="http://localhost/pruebas" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
            </output>
        </operation>
    </binding>

    <service name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponseService">
        <documentation>Returns an error message.</documentation>
        <port name="PerformTransactionArgumentsPort" binding="PerformTransactionArgumentsBinding">
            <soap:address location="http://localhost/pruebas/soap-server.php"/>
        </port>
    </service>
</definitions>

The definition seems overwhelming, but it’s quite simple once you analize it section by section, which we’ll analize below. First we define the type for the response here:

<types>
    <xs:schema targetNamespace="http://localhost/pruebas">
        <xs:element name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
            <xs:complexType>
                <xs:sequence>
                    <xs:element name="errorMsg" type="xs:string"/>
                    <xs:element name="status" type="xs:string"/>
                    <xs:element name="timeStamp" type="xs:string"/>
                </xs:sequence>
            </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
    </xs:schema>
</types>

As you can see it’s identical to your class. We’ll use it later. Next we define the request and response messages:

<message name="PerformTransactionArgumentsRequest"/>
<message name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
    <part name="return" element="ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse"/>
</message>

We’re defining an empty request, but a response of the type of your class. Take note of the name attribute, which values return. This is what you currently see in the response of the server. Next we define the “interface” for the operations of your SOAP server:

<portType name="PerformTransactionArgumentsPortType">
    <operation name="PerformTransactionArguments">
        <input message="PerformTransactionArgumentsRequest"/>
        <output message="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse"/>
    </operation>
</portType>

input and output simply point to the messages described above. Next we define the “details” of the portType:

<binding name="PerformTransactionArgumentsBinding" type="PerformTransactionArgumentsPortType">
    <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
    <operation name="PerformTransactionArguments">
        <soap:operation soapAction=""/>
        <input/>
        <output>
            <soap:body use="encoded" namespace="http://localhost/pruebas" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
        </output>
    </operation>
</binding>

Here soap:binding tells us it’s using SOAP 1.1.

Finally we expose the binding through the service section:

<service name="PerformTransactionArgumentsResponseService">
    <documentation>Returns an error message.</documentation>
    <port name="PerformTransactionArgumentsPort" binding="PerformTransactionArgumentsBinding">
        <soap:address location="http://localhost/pruebas/soap-server.php"/>
    </port>
</service>

The soap:address point to the URL of your soap server script (in this example, http://localhost/pruebas/soap-server.php).

After defining the WSDL document, we code the soap server script (in this example will be named soap-server.php):

class PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse {
    public $errorMsg = "Ok";
    public $status = "0";
    public $timeStamp = "2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00";
}


class MyAPI {
    function PerformTransactionArguments() {
        return new PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse;
    }
}

$options = [
    'soap_version' => SOAP_1_1,
    'cache_wsdl' => WSDL_CACHE_NONE
];

$server = new SoapServer('http://localhost/pruebas/soap-pruebas.wsdl', $options);
$server->setClass('MyAPI');
$server->handle();

This time we provide the URL of our WSDL document and modify the $options array.

To see all this in action we create a SOAP client script (in this example will be soap-client.php):

try {
    $options = [
        'soap_version' => SOAP_1_1,
        'trace'=>1
    ];

    $client = new SOAPClient('http://localhost/pruebas/soap-pruebas.wsdl', $options);

    $response = $client->PerformTransactionArguments();

    header('Content-type:text/xml');
    echo $client->__getLastResponse();
}
catch (SoapFault $e) {
    echo $e;
}

Again, we specify the URL of our WSDL document. Running the client script will give this:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns1="http://localhost/pruebas" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
        <ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse xsi:type="ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
            <errorMsg xsi:type="xsd:string">Ok</errorMsg>
            <status xsi:type="xsd:string">0</status>
            <timeStamp xsi:type="xsd:string">2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00</timeStamp>
        </ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

What differs from the generated response of your soap server script?

In the soap:binding definition, if we modify the value of the stylesttribute to from document to rpc:

<soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>

We’ll get this response:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://localhost/pruebas" 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:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
            <return xsi:type="ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse">
                <errorMsg xsi:type="xsd:string">Ok</errorMsg>
                <status xsi:type="xsd:string">0</status>
                <timeStamp xsi:type="xsd:string">2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00</timeStamp>
            </return>
        </ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Which is the response you’re getting currently.

EDIT: Lastly, if we change the soap:body line:

<soap:body use="encoded" namespace="http://localhost/pruebas" encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>

to this:

<soap:body use="literal"/>

The response will be:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://localhost/pruebas">
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
        <ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
            <errorMsg>Ok</errorMsg>
            <status>0</status>
            <timeStamp>2011-04-26T19:13:55.421875+05:00</timeStamp>
        </ns1:PerformTransactionArgumentsResponse>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

NOTE: For this I’m assuming the scripts and the WDSL are located in http://localhost/pruebas/.