Handling SOAP structures in PHP can sometimes be really annoying. If an interface is defined in the WSDL as returning an array I can't be sure that I will get an array. If there is only one element in the array PHP tries to be clever and turn the wanted array into an object which, too me, isn't really smart. I don't know if this is a problem/limitation on the client side, server side or if it is just me doing something stupid in the wsdl.
He gives an example of the WSDL that was requested and the differing results from a call that returned one Map item verses several (how the objects were returned). In asking for help, it looks like he got some in the comments - an attribute called SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS that can be added to the configuration array when creating the SoapClient object.
With the recent release of the 1.6 version of the Zend Framework, Andi Gutmans has posted some thoughts and highlights of features in the new version.
The Zend Framework Community has delivered another feature-rich release of Zend Framework and I'm extremely proud and happy to see the energy and excitement around this project. The ZF team (Wil Sinclair, Matthew Weier O'Phinney, Ralph Schindler, Alexander Veremyev) along with many others in the ZF community and at Zend, have been doing a superb job and have been working very hard to put this release together.
He mentions the Dojo integration, the updates to the SOAP component, updates to make test-driven development simpler and a reminder about ZendCon08 coming soon that will feature several Zend Framework-centric talks.
According to this new post on the Zend Developer Zone (from Wil Sinclair) the latest Release Candidate for the upcoming Zend Framework 1.6 release has been posted - Release Candidate 1.
We couldn't be happier to announce that Zend Framework 1.6 Release Candidate 1 is now available from the Zend Framework download site!
New features include the major Dojo integration, SOAP components and updates to the functionality for unit testing, session handling, pagination, character sets and much more. Check out the full list in the Zend Developer Zone post.
In his "newbie findings" posted to his blog today, David Goodwin recounts his efforts to get SOAP an XML-RPC up and working with his PHP5 project and the wealth of documentation he found.
I'm no great expert on the inner workings of these protocols....there are probably secret manuals on SOAP/XmlRpc etc I/we failed to read somewhere. This is just a documentation of what I/we as "newbies" found ...
Resources in the list include things like the SCA SDO module from PECL, some examples of its usage, where it is used, what kind of transport layer the protocol allows and some of the functionality that the Zend Framework allows (including some sample code for a simple server and client).
In a new post on the IBM developerWorks page, Nathan Good takes a look at some of the features of the up and coming versions of the PHP language including things like namespaces, changes in the XML handling and a few things taken out.
PHP's next edition, V6, includes new features and syntax improvements that will make it easier to use from an object-oriented standpoint. Other important features, such as Unicode support in many of the core functions, mean that PHP V6 is positioned for better international support and robustness.
New features he mentions include namespace support, improvements to the native Unicode support as well as a few of the things that will be permanently retired like the php.ini settings for magic_quotes and register_globals.
In a new article from PHPBuilder.com.au today, they talk about the "powerhouse of web services", SOAP, and how to get started working with it in PHP.
You've tried your hand at building mashups, experimented with a few RESTful Web services, maybe even started your own. Sure, you've got data sharing working. But how do you make your Web applications really talk to each other? In this tutorial, I'll show you how to take your Web applications to the next level with SOAP.
They opt to go with the NuSOAP method to consume another service and create your own simple one. They include a few code examples for either side and a (very) brief look at doing some debugging with what NuSOAP has to offer. One thing to note - if you have PHP5's SOAP extension compiled in and working, NuSOAP will throw an error about redeclaring a class name. This is because of a conflict between the naming of the SOAP extension's methods and NuSOAP.
Marco Tabini has posted his list of what he considers five features of PHP5 that you "can't afford to ignore" when doing your development work:
Despite the fact that you may not have a choice in the matter, upgrading comes with a number of bonus new features that can help you write better code and gain access to new functionality that required a fair amount of hacking in previous version. Here's a quick list of 5 personal favourites.
The feature to make his list are SimpleXML, JSON/SOAP, PDO, the Standard PHP Library and SQLite. Each has their own bonus feature(s) included too for a little extra incentive to check them out.
Eirik Hoem has posted a tip for all of the PHP SOAP developers out there - a method for setting the xsi:type correctly for objects sent in the message.
I spent quite some time looking for info on how to specify the xsi:type for the objects, and I finally came across SoapVar. I created a base class which the SOAP classes extended. A method called pack is responsible for setting xsi:type.
In his example, he creates a BaseClass to work from and builds a createCustomer class on top of it, defining a setCustomer function inside. When the new Person is created, a new Customer is too complete with the correctly formatted type on the object.
The scenario was that when an array with only one object was returned over SOAP the array was discarded and pointed straight to the single object.
Come to find out, this behavior wasn't a bug, it was a feature - the fix is to add another parameter to the initialization of the SoapClient to add the SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS feature.
Korynn Bohn has posted a new tutorial/article on the Zend Developer Zone website that talks about (and advocates for) web services.
Web services are the coolest technology I know of that ends up turning everyone off. I don't know about you, but when I go to a lecture on Web services, invariably tons of acronyms come out [...] and then I start to nod off and dream about a land where free Krispy Kreme donuts grow on trees.
He reframes the web services world away from the acronyms and strict standards to more towards using it as a method of communication between apps, letting them engage in some friendly conversation. He uses the rest of the tutorial showing how to create an RSS reader of sorts using dashes of PEAR, XML, C#, XSLT, Ajax and Flex.
