Inspect XML created by PHP SoapClient call before/without sending the request

Question

The question: Is there a way to view the XML that would be created with a PHP SoapClient function call BEFORE you actually send the request?

background:

I am new to WSDL communication, and I have a client who wants me to develop in PHP, a way to communicate with a WSDL service written in ASP.NET. I have gotten pretty far, but am running into an issue when it comes to passing a complex type. I have tried a couple of different things so far.

1) Setting up a single array such as $params->Person->name $params->Person->address

2) Setting up a single array $Person = array('name'=>"joe",'address' = "123");

then passing into the call as a param "Person" => $Person; and a few others. But every time I get the error

SoapException: Server was unable to process request ---> System.Exception: Person is Required. at service name.

In order to further the troubleshooting, I would like to see the XML document that is being sent to see if it is creating a complex type in the way I am expecting it to. I am creating the service using $client = new SoapClient('wsdldoc.asmx?WSDL'); calling it with $client->CreateUser($params); and then trying to see it using the function $client->__getLastRequest(); but it never makes it to the __getLastRequest because it hits a fatal error when calling CreateUser($params).

The question again: Is there any way to view the XML created by the CreateUser($params) call WITHOUT actually sending it and causing a fatal error

Answer 1

Upfront remark: In order to use the __getLastRequest() method successfully, you have to set the 'trace' option to true on client construction:

$client = new SoapClient('wsdldoc.asmx?WSDL', array('trace' => TRUE));

This way, your request will still be sent (and therefore still fail), but you can inspect the sent xml afterwards by calling $client->__getLastRequest().

---

Main answer:

To get access to the generated XML before/without sending the request, you'd need to subclass the SoapClient in order to override the __doRequest() method:

class SoapClientDebug extends SoapClient
{
  public function __doRequest($request, $location, $action, $version, $one_way = 0) {
      // Add code to inspect/dissect/debug/adjust the XML given in $request here

      // Uncomment the following line, if you actually want to do the request
      // return parent::__doRequest($request, $location, $action, $version, $one_way);
  }
}

You'd then use this extended class instead of the original SoapClient while debugging your problem.