Why do I get a connection error / timeout when using python suds to connect to Microsoft CRM?

Question

When I try to connect to an MS CRM web service using suds/python-ntlm, I am getting a timeout on requests. However, the code that I'm trying to replace -- which calls out to the cURL command line app to do the same call -- succeeds.

Clearly something is different in the way that cURL is sending the command data, but I'll be damned if I know what the difference is. Below are the full details of the various calls. Anyone got any tips?

Here's the code that is making the request, followed by the output. The cURL command code is below that, and its response follows. Hosts, users, and passwords have been changed to protect the innocent, of course.

wsdl_url = 'https://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx?WSDL'
username = r'domain\user.name'
password = 'userpass'

from suds.transport.https import WindowsHttpAuthenticated
from suds.client import Client

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
logging.getLogger('suds.client').setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
logging.getLogger('suds.transport').setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

ntlmTransport = WindowsHttpAuthenticated(username=username, password=password)
metadata_client = Client(wsdl_url, transport=ntlmTransport)

request = metadata_client.factory.create('RetrieveAttributeRequest')
request.MetadataId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
request.EntityLogicalName = 'opportunity'
request.LogicalName = 'new_typeofcontact'
request.RetrieveAsIfPublished = 'false'

attr = metadata_client.service.Execute(request)
print attr

Here's the output:

DEBUG:suds.client:sending to (http://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx)
message:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:ns0="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"&gt;
   <SOAP-ENV:Header/>
   <ns0:Body>
      <ns1:Execute>
         <ns1:Request xsi:type="ns1:RetrieveAttributeRequest">
            <ns1:MetadataId>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</ns1:MetadataId>
            <ns1:EntityLogicalName>opportunity</ns1:EntityLogicalName>
            <ns1:LogicalName>new_typeofcontact</ns1:LogicalName>
            <ns1:RetrieveAsIfPublished>false</ns1:RetrieveAsIfPublished>
         </ns1:Request>
      </ns1:Execute>
   </ns0:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
DEBUG:suds.client:headers = {'SOAPAction': u'"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute"', 'Content-Type': 'text/xml'}
DEBUG:suds.transport.http:sending:
URL:http://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx
HEADERS: {'SOAPAction': u'"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute"', 'Content-Type': 'text/xml', 'Content-type': 'text/xml', 'Soapaction': u'"http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute"'}
MESSAGE:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:ns0="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"&gt;
   <SOAP-ENV:Header/>
   <ns0:Body>
      <ns1:Execute>
         <ns1:Request xsi:type="ns1:RetrieveAttributeRequest">
            <ns1:MetadataId>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</ns1:MetadataId>
            <ns1:EntityLogicalName>opportunity</ns1:EntityLogicalName>
            <ns1:LogicalName>new_typeofcontact</ns1:LogicalName>
            <ns1:RetrieveAsIfPublished>false</ns1:RetrieveAsIfPublished>
         </ns1:Request>
      </ns1:Execute>
   </ns0:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
ERROR: An unexpected error occurred while tokenizing input
The following traceback may be corrupted or invalid
The error message is: ('EOF in multi-line statement', (16, 0))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
URLError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)

/Users/crose/projects/2366/crm/<ipython console> in <module>()

/var/folders/nb/nbJAzxR1HbOppPcs6xO+dE+++TY/-Tmp-/python-67186icm.py in <module>()
     19 request.LogicalName = 'new_typeofcontact'
     20 request.RetrieveAsIfPublished = 'false'
     21 
---> 22 attr = metadata_client.service.Execute(request)
     23 print attr

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/client.pyc in __call__(self, *args, **kwargs)
    537                 return (500, e)
    538         else:
--> 539             return client.invoke(args, kwargs)
    540         
    541     def faults(self):

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/client.pyc in invoke(self, args, kwargs)
    596                 self.method.name, timer)
    597         timer.start()
--> 598         result = self.send(msg)
    599         timer.stop()
    600         metrics.log.debug(

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/client.pyc in send(self, msg)
    621             request = Request(location, str(msg))
    622             request.headers = self.headers()
--> 623             reply = transport.send(request)
    624             if retxml:
    625                 result = reply.message

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/transport/https.pyc in send(self, request)
     62     def send(self, request):
     63         self.addcredentials(request)
---> 64         return  HttpTransport.send(self, request)
     65     
     66     def addcredentials(self, request):

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/transport/http.pyc in send(self, request)
     75             request.headers.update(u2request.headers)
     76             log.debug('sending:\n%s', request)
---> 77             fp = self.u2open(u2request)
     78             self.getcookies(fp, u2request)
     79             result = Reply(200, fp.headers.dict, fp.read())

/Users/crose/virtualenv/advanis/lib/python2.6/site-packages/suds/transport/http.pyc in u2open(self, u2request)
    116             return url.open(u2request)
    117         else:
--> 118             return url.open(u2request, timeout=tm)
    119             
    120     def u2opener(self):

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.pyc in open(self, fullurl, data, timeout)
    381             req = meth(req)
    382 
--> 383         response = self._open(req, data)
    384 
    385         # post-process response

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.pyc in _open(self, req, data)
    399         protocol = req.get_type()
    400         result = self._call_chain(self.handle_open, protocol, protocol +
--> 401                                   '_open', req)
    402         if result:
    403             return result

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.pyc in _call_chain(self, chain, kind, meth_name, *args)
    359             func = getattr(handler, meth_name)
    360 
--> 361             result = func(*args)
    362             if result is not None:
    363                 return result

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.pyc in http_open(self, req)
   1128 
   1129     def http_open(self, req):
-> 1130         return self.do_open(httplib.HTTPConnection, req)
   1131 
   1132     http_request = AbstractHTTPHandler.do_request_

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.pyc in do_open(self, http_class, req)
   1103             r = h.getresponse()
   1104         except socket.error, err: # XXX what error?
-> 1105             raise URLError(err)
   1106 
   1107         # Pick apart the HTTPResponse object to get the addinfourl

URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 60] Operation timed out>

The cURL command is:

/opt/local/bin/curl --ntlm -u "domain\user.name:userpass" -k -d @- -A "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; InfoPath.1)" -H "Connection: Keep-Alive" -H "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8" -H "SOAPAction: http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices/Execute" https://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx

The data that is piped to that cURL command:

        <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
            <soap:Header>
                <CrmAuthenticationToken xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices"&gt;
                    <AuthenticationType xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/CoreTypes"&gt;0&lt;/AuthenticationType&gt;
                    <CrmTicket xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/CoreTypes"&gt;&lt;/CrmTicket&gt;
                    <OrganizationName xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/CoreTypes"&gt;CMIFS&lt;/OrganizationName&gt;
                    <CallerId xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/CoreTypes"&gt;00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&lt;/CallerId&gt;
                </CrmAuthenticationToken>
            </soap:Header>


        <soap:Body>
            <Execute xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices"&gt;
                <Request xsi:type="RetrieveAttributeRequest">
                    <MetadataId>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</MetadataId>
                    <EntityLogicalName>opportunity</EntityLogicalName>
                    <LogicalName>new_typeofcontact</LogicalName>
                    <RetrieveAsIfPublished>false</RetrieveAsIfPublished>
                </Request>
            </Execute>
        </soap:Body>


        </soap:Envelope>

Here's the response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
               xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
               xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  <soap:Body>
    <ExecuteResponse
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/crm/2007/WebServices"&gt;
      <Response xsi:type="RetrieveAttributeResponse">
        <AttributeMetadata xsi:type="PicklistAttributeMetadata">
          <MetadataId>101346cf-a6af-4eb4-a4bf-9c3c6bbd6582</MetadataId>
          <SchemaName>New_TypeofContact</SchemaName>
          <LogicalName>new_typeofcontact</LogicalName>
          <EntityLogicalName>opportunity</EntityLogicalName>
          <AttributeType>
            <Value>Picklist</Value>
          </AttributeType>
          <!-- stuff here -->
        </AttributeMetadata>
      </Response>
    </ExecuteResponse>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Answer 1

It looks like you might be having a problem with the location in the WSDL. If you check the debug output when it says it is sending:

DEBUG:suds.transport.http:sending:
URL:http://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx 

Note that the URL is http, and that does not vibe with the initial connection, which was https.

Try modifying the instantiation of your client by adding a location argument to force it to use https like so:

svc_url = 'https://client.service.host/MSCrmServices/2007/MetadataService.asmx'
metadata_client = Client(wsdl_url, transport=ntlmTransport, location=svc_url)

(Note that the service URL should be the same of as the WSDL URL minus the ?WSDL).