SOAP(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation SOAP(3)NAMESOAP - Library for SOAP clients and servers in Perl
SYNOPSIS
use SOAP;
print "This is SOAP/Perl-$SOAP::VERSION\n";
DESCRIPTION
SOAP/Perl is a collection of Perl modules which provides a simple and
consistent application programming interface (API) to the Simple Object
Access Protocl (SOAP).
To learn more about SOAP, see the W3C note at
<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP>
This library provides tools for you to build SOAP clients and servers.
The library contains modules for high-level use of SOAP, but also mod-
ules for lower-level use in case you need something a bit more cus-
tomized.
SOAP/Perl uses Perl's object oriented features exclusively. There are
no subroutines exported directly by these modules.
This version of SOAP/Perl supports the SOAP 1.0 specification, which is
an IETF internet draft. See <URL:http://www.ietf.org> for details.
The main features of the library are:
o Contains various reusable components (modules) that can be used sep-
arately or together.
o Provides an object oriented model for serializing/deserializing and
sending/receiving SOAP packets (lovingly referred to in some circles
as SOAP bars). Within this framework we currently support access to
SOAP over HTTP, but we're open to expanding support for SOAP over
SMTP and other transports in the future.
o Provides a fully object oriented interface.
o Supports SOAP 1.1 spec. The current version does not yet handle
arrays.
o Supports serializing/deserializing of sophisticated object graphs
which may have cycles (a circular queue would serialize just fine,
for instance).
o Provides full namespace support for SOAP 1.1, which is recommended
by the spec.
o Implements full support for SOAP 1.1 references, including correctly
dealing with shared references between header and body elements.
o Experimental support for extensibility of the serialization/deseri-
alization architecture has been included; see SOAP::TypeMapper for
details, and SOAP::Struct and SOAP::StructSerializer for a specific
example.
o Supports servers using CGI or Apache+mod_perl. Tested with Apache on
Linux as well as IIS on Windows 2000.
The EnvelopeMaker Object
SOAP::EnvelopeMaker takes as input an array of header objects and a
single body object (currently these "objects" are either Perl hashes,
or instances of SOAP::Struct), and produces as output an XML stream.
The Parser Object
SOAP::Parser takes as input a string (or a file/file handle) and parses
the content as a SOAP envelope. This results in an array of header
objects and a single body element.
To avoid coupling the SOAP serialization/deserialization code to HTTP,
a set of loadable transports is also provided. See the following mod-
ules for documentation of the transport architecture:
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Client
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Server
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Apache
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI
Where to Find Examples
See SOAP::EnvelopeMaker for a client-side example that shows the seri-
alization of a SOAP request, sending it over HTTP and receiving a
response, and the deserialization of the response.
See SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Apache for a server-side example that shows
how to map incoming HTTP requests to method calls on your own Perl
classes.
OVERVIEW OF CLASSES AND PACKAGES
This table should give you a quick overview of the classes provided by
the library.
-- High-level classes you should begin with --
SOAP::Struct -- Ordered collection often used to
hold SOAP requests and responses
SOAP::TypedPrimitive -- Adds an explicit xsi:type to stream
SOAP::EnvelopeMaker -- Serializes objects into SOAP bars
SOAP::Parser -- Deserializes SOAP bars into objects
SOAP::Transport -- Description of transport architecture
SOAP::Transport::HTTP -- Description of HTTP transport
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Client -- Client side support for HTTP,
using libwww-perl
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Server -- Server side support for HTTP,
decoupled from web server APIs
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Apache -- Apache/mod_perl support
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI -- Vanilla CGI support
-- Serialization architecture --
SOAP::Envelope -- Low level access to SOAP serialization
SOAP::OutputStream -- used in conjunction with SOAP::Envelope for
Low level access to SOAP serialization
SOAP::Packager -- Helps to implement SOAP 1.0 packages,
used by SOAP::Envelope and SOAP::OutputStream
SOAP::GenericHashSerializer -- Generic serializer for Perl hash references
SOAP::GenericScalarSerializer -- Generic serializer for Perl scalars
SOAP::TypedPrimitiveSerializer -- Specialized serializer
SOAP::StructSerializer -- Specialized serializer
-- Deserialization architecture --
SOAP::GenericInputStream.pm -- Look here if you are interested in
extending the deserialization framework
to be able to deserialize your own objects
-- Miscellaneous --
SOAP::TypeMapper -- An experimental extensibility point for the
serialization architecture
SOAP::Defs -- Constants used by the other modules
MORE DOCUMENTATION
All modules contain detailed information on the interfaces they pro-
vide.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
The serialization framework does not yet handle arrays, and the HTTP
transport does not handle M-POST.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Keith Brown is the original and current author of this work, but he
worked very closely with Don Box in developing a common design and
implementation architecture (Don was building a Java implementation
side-by-side, and Keith and Don worked together in a kind of XP style
of programming - it was fun). GopalK at Microsoft was tremendously
helpful in ferreting out issues in the SOAP spec. Mike Abercrombie at
DevelopMentor (where Keith and Don work) was very supportive of the
effort as well. Thanks Mike!
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1999-2000, DevelopMentor. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
AVAILABILITY
The latest version of this library is normally available from CPAN as
well as:
http://soapl.develop.com/soap_perl_current
The best place to discuss this code is on the SOAP mailing list at:
http://discuss.develop.com/soap.html
perl v5.8.8 2000-09-05 SOAP(3)
