Module Advice: using webservices and xml parsing
Hi there,
I've been searching around for a while for an answer to my problem without much luck. I have an idea for a solution, but I'd like to know if there is a better way to attack this.
Simple problem: I need to upload a file (resume) to a .NET webservice I created. This webservice returns a nicely formatted hr-xml file for me to use. It then needs to be drupalized into a node.
I've been looking at the SOAP Client (http://drupal.org/project/soapclient) to do the webservices bit, but it doesn't seem heavily maintained and is not well documented. For the XML conversation to nodes I was looking at the FeedAPI (http://drupal.org/project/feedapi) and the Mapper but I'm not sure if can be used like this.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks,
Kurt
soapclient is a useful module
soapclient is a useful module because it allows you to write drupal modules using SOAP that will work on any installation. On many Unix systems, when you install the PHP package, SOAP support is absent and in PHP 4 there is no SOAP support. The soapclient module allows you to write code that will work in such environments.
You're right that it is pretty badly supported and documented, however, there are only two functions you need, so it's not too bad and the source code is short and readable.
I've also made a couple of patches to make it more useful and get rid of a few bugs.
If you are just writing a quick module just for yourself to use, I'd suggest to directly use the SOAP implementation you are most comfortable with. I myself find the SOAPClient in PHP 5 to be pretty horrid. nuSOAP is a bit nicer to use but its code isn't too great either. Both are very badly documented but at least you can find a couple of introductory articles on the web for nuSOAP.
Pick your poison ;)
Is SOAPClient an API then?
I'm just dipping my toes in the world of WSDL, and stumbled across SOAPClient too. Is it true to say it's just an API for custom module development? Other than the basic configuration and the test example, the SOAP Client seems to do little. I thought like @jarchowk maybe I would be able to map XML via FeedAPI.
Are there any contrib modules that leverage SOAP client?