PHP SoapClient call response missing parts of answer

Question

I am having trouble with PHP parsing of a SoapClient call's response. For some types of answers, it is returning arrays of empty stdClass objects instead of initialized stdClass objects.

The server is a java webservice deployed with axis2 on tomcat6. The Java signature of the problematic service call is public Course getCourseDetails(Long courseId) Course is a standard POJO defined as:

public class Course {
    private Long id;
    private List<Hole> holes;
    private String name;
    private String tees;

    //etc...
}

Hole is a standard POJO with only primative members.

When called with PHP, the holes member is an array with the correct length, but each hole is empty.

$args = array();
$args["courseId"] = $courseId;
$response = $client->getCourseDetails($args);
$course = $response->return;
//course has all of its primitive members set correctly: good
$holes = $course->holes;
//holes is an array with count = 18: good
$hole = $holes[0];
//hole is an empty stdClass: bad

Printing out the returned XML with $soapClient->__getLastResponse() what looks like the correct representation:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"&gt;
<soapenv:Body>
<ns:getCourseDetailsResponse xmlns:ns="http://webservice.golfstats"&gt;
<ns:return xmlns:ax21="http://datastructures.server.golfstats/xsd" xmlns:ax22="http://util.java/xsd" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ax24="http://uuid.eaio.com/xsd" xsi:type="ax21:Course">
<ax21:courseLocation>Faketown, VA</ax21:courseLocation>
<ax21:courseName>Fake Links</ax21:courseName>
<ax21:dateAdded>2003-01-02</ax21:dateAdded>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>1</ax21:id><ax21:number>1</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>2</ax21:id><ax21:number>2</ax21:number><ax21:par>3</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>150</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>3</ax21:id><ax21:number>3</ax21:number><ax21:par>5</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>502</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>4</ax21:id><ax21:number>4</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>5</ax21:id><ax21:number>5</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>6</ax21:id><ax21:number>6</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>7</ax21:id><ax21:number>7</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>8</ax21:id><ax21:number>8</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>9</ax21:id><ax21:number>9</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>10</ax21:id><ax21:number>10</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>11</ax21:id><ax21:number>11</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>12</ax21:id><ax21:number>12</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>13</ax21:id><ax21:number>13</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>14</ax21:id><ax21:number>14</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>15</ax21:id><ax21:number>15</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>16</ax21:id><ax21:number>16</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>17</ax21:id><ax21:number>17</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:holes><ax21:id>18</ax21:id><ax21:number>18</ax21:number><ax21:par>4</ax21:par><ax21:yardage>345</ax21:yardage></ax21:holes>
<ax21:id>1</ax21:id>
<ax21:rating>68.5</ax21:rating>
<ax21:slope>113</ax21:slope>
<ax21:tees>Blue</ax21:tees>
</ns:return>
</ns:getCourseDetailsResponse>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Why is each hole an empty stdClass? Are there known limitations to the number of levels SoapClient will parse a response?

Answer 1

Did you figure this all out by debugging or printing out the contents of the PHP object (print_r, var_dump)?

Have you tried printing out the actual SOAP response string (not the PHP object)? You can do this by creating the SoapClient with the debug option set:

$soapClient = new SoapClient( "http://your.soap.server.com/services/yourWsdl.wsdl", array("trace" => 1));

Then when you use the client to make your SOAP call, you can take a look at both the request and the response strings.

$response = $soapClient->getCourseDetails($params);
$requestAsString = $soapClient->__getLastRequest();
$responseAsString = $soapClient->__getLastResponse();

This might help you figure out what SoapClient is doing when it's converting the response to a PHP object. More info on __getLastResponse().

Answer 2

This appears to be a bug in PHP. http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49070

Unfortunately, the bug tracker won't let me comment on it.

Answer 3

I have the same problem. I added a comment to the bug. I had trouble adding a comment to the bug due to http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=48126