SOAP::Lite for Perl

Support for HTTP 1.1's Expect: 100-Continue

So I have been working sith Sam Shillace over at Writely, a very cool product if no one has seen it, on problems they have been having posting against SOAP::Lite servers. Writely is one of the only successful "Web 2.0 Applications" built on top of .NET I have seen - so kudos to his and his team for proving so many people wrong that smokin' cool apps can be built on top of .NET.

Anyway that little fact is relevant because .NET has implemented a little known HTTP Header called "Expect" (officially part of the HTTP 1.1 spec) which SOAP::Lite does not support... yet.

However, I think I may have fixed that problem. I have checked in a change to HTTP.pm that I believe will do just that. It still needs to be tested, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. For you bleeding edge folks, you can check out the source code from CVS.

Unlocking 0.65: Direct access to the HTTP::Request and HTTP::Response objects

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I said I would take the reigns of the SOAP::Lite project. SOAP::Lite is an extensive module that feels like it grew quite organically. It is infused with some of the most creative Perl I have ever seen, and it took me two years of sporadic and at times intense development to even begin to unravel and make sense of the code. As a result, most SOAP::Lite releases have focused on areas of code which I was already intimately familiar, i.e. the MIME section, or with relatively minor bug fixes. But with 0.65 I pledged to tackle some of the issues that have long frustrated me. Over the next couple of weeks I will introduce a series of articles that explores some of the enhancements I have made to SOAP::Lite 0.65.

Intercepting the request and/or response before and after processing

A common question in the SOAP::Lite Newsgroup is about intercepting the request prior to handling, and the response prior to it being returned. SOAP::Lite v0.65 enables this on the client side pretty easily using the http_request and http_response methods on SOAP::Transport::HTTP::Client, but the server side is still a relative black art. I have friends who have used SOAP::Trace to log, or write to a file, the SOAP payload, but that is not entirely sufficient for all their needs. In future versions, SOAP::Lite will introduce the concept of handler chains, similar to Java Servlets, but for now, one still needs to do a little more work. The following code sample shows how one can extend SOAP::Transport::HTTP:CGI to intercept both the HTTP request and the HTTP response prior to it being processed and/or returned respectively.

Support

On this page you will find information on how to receive support for developing Web Services using the SOAP::Lite Perl module. Disclaimer: While the SOAP::Lite community and  development team is happy to support any version of SOAP::Lite, it is recommended that you always use the latest version of SOAP::Lite because the latest version has addressed all known vulnerabilities and bugs.        

Find support now:

• Find Help
• Report a Bug
• Known Bugs and Limitations

Find Help

Documentation

The SOAP::Lite development team highly recommends the O'Reilly book Programming Web Services with Perl, authored by Randy J. Ray, and the SOAP::Lite creator, Paul Kulchenko. Alternatively, you can find plenty of documentation online, including SOAP::Lite man pages, SOAP::Lite Cookbook, and The SOAP::Lite User Guide.

Mailing Lists

Before mailing the mailing list, you are encouraged to browse or search the SOAP::Lite User mailing list. If you are unable to find the answer to your problem there, feel free to post your question to that mailing list. The SOAP::Lite development team watches this list closely and if the community at large is unable to help, chances are one of them will.

       

Report a Bug
Even if software is 100% bug free, it is never perfect. If you have encountered a problem or a shortcoming with the current SOAP::Lite toolkit, you are strongly encouraged to submit a bug or feature request. Doing so will help the SOAP::Lite development team keep better track of all the potential changes we could make to the toolkit.

Note: Before submitting a bug, please make sure the bug has not already been reported before.

Known Bugs and Limitations

• SOAP::Lite servers that use version 0.52 or earlier have security flaw. Consider upgrade or block unauthorized calls using on_action() handler:

  ->on_action(sub { die "Access denied\n" if $_[2] =~ /:|'/ })

• Limited support for WSDL schema.
• XML::Parser::Lite relies on Unicode support in Perl and doesn't do entity decoding.
• Limited support for mustUnderstand and Actor attributes.

Mailing Lists

The following mailing lists relate to the SOAP::Lite Perl Module project.

• Announcements list - This list is a low volume mailing that only SOAP::Lite project leads can post to. Subscribers of this list will receive announcements about the SOAP::Lite project, such as releases, recently discovered bygs and vulnerabilities, etc.
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• User Support and Discussion - This list is for those seeking support (and wishing to provide support) for the SOAP::Lite Perl Module.
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• Development mailing list - This list is for those contributing to and those wishing to follow the continued development of the SOAP::Lite code base.
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Installation Instructions

Unix Users

To install, download the latest version of SOAP::Lite and follow the standard Perl module installation procedures by entering the very familiar command sequence:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

       

If you have CPAN.pm module installed and you are connected to the Internet, then run the following sequence of commands:

perl -MCPAN -e shell
> install SOAP::Lite

Or even:

perl -MCPAN -e 'install SOAP::Lite'

Windows Users

Windows users should use 'nmake' instead of make. For example:

perl Makefile.PL
nmake
nmake test
nmake install

Makefile.PL Command Line Options and Usage

Usage: perl Makefile.PL 

Possible options are:
 
  --noprompt            Disable interactive dialog
  --alltests            Perform extra testing
  --help, -?            Display this help text
 
  [Do not] install prerequisites for appropriate module:
 
  --[no]install-SOAP-Lite                    --[no]Lite
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-HTTPS-Client  --[no]HTTPS-Client
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-MAILTO-Client --[no]MAILTO-Client
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-FTP-Client    --[no]FTP-Client
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-HTTP-Daemon   --[no]HTTP-Daemon
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-HTTP-Apache   --[no]HTTP-Apache
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-HTTP-FCGI     --[no]HTTP-FCGI
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-POP3-Server   --[no]POP3-Server
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-IO-Server     --[no]IO-Server
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-MQ            --[no]MQ
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-JABBER        --[no]JABBER
  --[no]install-SOAP-MIMEParser              --[no]MIMEParser
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-TCP           --[no]TCP
  --[no]install-SOAP-Transport-HTTP          --[no]HTTP

Use perl Makefile.PL --noprompt to disable interactive configuration. Follow these instructions to install SOAP::Lite on your hosting account.