[geeklog-devel] GL2: using SOAP

[Chris Franklin]

I've spent some time this week looking at how GL2 can leverage SOAP.
As per Tony, I see an opportunity to use SOAP in these areas:
- AA (Authentication and Authorization)
- communication btwn. geeklog.net and any GL2 installation (a good example
of this is the new GL2 bug repository but really any RPC that needs to
happen btwn. geeklog.net and all the GL2 installations.)
- modules/blocks

Module/Block developers can use SOAP to take advantage of any available SOAP
service on the net. To get an idea of what's available, take a look at
www.xmethods.com. All kinds of great web services available here:
- news feeds
- language translation
- quote of the day
- map images
- address finder
- stock finder
- zip code info
- the list goes on and on and is likely getting bigger every day.


There's 2 main PHP SOAP implementations in use:
- PEAR:SOAP
- nusoap

I started off looking at PEAR:SOAP. It's powerful but is more time consuming
as you have to manually marshall the data.
Nosoap is much easier and seems to be more mature. All you have to do is
write a few lines for the client and server, then just point the client at
the server. Also, nusoap only requires that you include 1 php file:
nusoap.php - so it's easily distributable. (See examples below). You can
also define WSDL's for your SOAP services - haven't tried that yet though.
Nusoap is found here:
http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap/index.php

Does anyone have experience using either of these PHP soap implementations?
It would be great to get some feedback about this. If not, and you're
interested to learn more, here's some resources I found (pretty much all
examples of using nusoap):
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/tutorial-campbell.php
http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/414/3
http://www.aspbuilder.net/asp/dev_article.asp?aspid=12
http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/elkan/134A/section_021115.html
http://www.ampoliros.com/en/dev/sdk/soap.txt
http://www.flash-db.com/services/Example.php
http://developer.apple.com/internet/webservices/soapphp.html


If you don't want to read all that, then here's an example of a hello world
and a request for a dynamic array of bugs (apologies if my php code is not
proper - still learning the language):


Here's an example of hello world - (string in, 1 string out):
----------------------------------------------------------
HELLO CLIENT:
<?php
// testing 1 string in, 1 string out
require_once('../nusoap.php');
$soapclient = new soapclient('http://your-ip-here/nusoap/server/hello.php');
$soapclient->debug_flag = true;
echo $soapclient->call('hello', array('name'=>'franchr'));
?>

HELLO SERVER:
<?php
require_once('../nusoap.php');
$server = new soap_server;
$server->register('hello');
function hello ($name){
  // optionally catch an error and return a fault
  if($name == '') {
    return new soap_fault('Client','','Must supply a valid name.');
  }
  return "Hello $name.";
}
$server->service($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA);
exit();
?>
----------------------------------------------------------

Here's an example of a request for all outstanding bugs (1 dummy string in
and an array of arrays back):
BUGS CLIENT:
----------------------------------------------------------
<?php
// testing 0 strings in, arrays of arrays back out
require_once('../nusoap.php');
$soapclient = new soapclient('http://your-ip-here/nusoap/server/bugs.php');
$soapclient->debug_flag = true;
$result = $soapclient->call('getBugs', array());
for($i=0; $i < count($result[0]); $i++) {
  $bug = $result[0][$i];
  $retval  = "id: "        . $bug[0] . "<br />";
  $retval .= "desc: "      . $bug[1] . "<br />";
  $retval .= "submitter: " . $bug[2] . "<br />";
  $retval .= "----------<br />";
  echo $retval;
}
?>

BUGS SERVER:
<?php
require_once('../nusoap.php');
$server = new soap_server;
$server->register('getBugs');
function getBugs($dummy){
  return stub();
}
function stub() {
  // 0: id
  // 1: description
  // 2: submitter
  return array( array('1', 'where is any key?',  'joeschmo.com'),
                array('2', 'does not work!'   ,  'd at blah.com'),
                array('3', 'what is config.php?', 'blah at blah.com') );
}
$server->service($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA);
exit();
?>
----------------------------------------------------------