How to easily consume a web service from PHP

Question

Is there a tool for PHP which can generate code for consuming a web service based on its WSDL? Something comparable to clicking "Add Web Reference" in Visual Studio or the Eclypse plugin which does the same thing for Java.

Answer 1

Well, those features are specific to a tool that you are using for development in those languages.

You wouldn't have those tools if (for example) you were using notepad to write code. So, maybe you should ask the question for the tool you are using.

For PHP: http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2004/03/24/phpws.html

Answer 2

I have used NuSOAP in the past. I liked it because it is just a set of PHP files that you can include. There is nothing to install on the web server and no config options to change. It has WSDL support as well which is a bonus.

Answer 3

I've had great success with wsdl2php. It will automatically create wrapper classes for all objects and methods used in your web service.

Answer 4

In PHP 5 you can use SoapClient on the WSDL to call the web service functions. For example:

$client = new SoapClient("some.wsdl");

and $client is now an object which has class methods as defined in some.wsdl. So if there was a method called getTime in the WSDL then you would just call:

$result = $client->getTime();

And the result of that would (obviously) be in the $result variable. You can use the __getFunctions method to return a list of all the available methods.