SOAP: PHP5 and nusoap.php

I've been learning today some SOAP (Service Oriented Architecture Protocol), the protocol for exchanging XML-based messages over computer networks, normally using HTTP.

Also, the simpliest way to make it work without spending hours reconfiguring PHP on your server, is to use nusoap.php. This set of classes is 100% written in PHP and work out of the box with PHP4, but not PHP5! Also, to make it work, you will have to edit the file nusoap.php by changing:

1. Do a search and replace of soapclient to soap_client in the entire document
2. Replace this code:

if (!extension_loaded('soap')) {
/**
* For backwards compatiblity, define soap_client unless the PHP SOAP extension is loaded.
*/
class soap_client extends nusoap_client {
}
}

By this code:

class soap_client extends nusoap_client {}

And now it's time to try your first SOAP script (from http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap/faq.php including the update of the class):

Here is a simple "hello world" example. First create file "hello.php."
Put nusoap.php in the same directory, or in your include directory, or enter
the path to them in the require_once() calls below. Then paste the code below
into the file. That's it!

require_once('nusoap.php');
$server = new soap_server;
$server->register('hello');
function hello ($name)
{
return "Hello $name.";
}
$server->service($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA);

Accessing the service via a NuSOAP client:

require_once('nusoap.php');
$soap_client = new soap_client('http://yourdomain.com/hello.php');
echo $soap_client->call('hello',array('name'=>'dietrich'));