What's the best way to use SOAP with Ruby? - ruby-on-rails

Question

A client of mine has asked me to integrate a 3rd party API into their Rails app. The only problem is that the API uses SOAP. Ruby has basically dropped SOAP in favor of REST. They provide a Java adapter that apparently works with the Java-Ruby bridge, but we'd like to keep it all in Ruby, if possible. I looked into soap4r, but it seems to have a slightly bad reputation.
So what's the best way to integrate SOAP calls into a Rails app?

Answer 1

I built Savon to make interacting with SOAP webservices via Ruby as easy as possible.
I'd recommend you check it out.

Answer 2

We used the built in soap/wsdlDriver class, which is actually SOAP4R.
It's dog slow, but really simple. The SOAP4R that you get from gems/etc is just an updated version of the same thing.
Example code:
require 'soap/wsdlDriver'
client = SOAP::WSDLDriverFactory.new( 'http://example.com/service.wsdl' ).create_rpc_driver
result = client.doStuff();
That's about it

Answer 3

We switched from Handsoap to Savon.
Here is a series of blog posts comparing the two client libraries.

Answer 4

I also recommend Savon. I spent too many hours trying to deal with Soap4R, without results. Big lack of functionality, no doc.
Savon is the answer for me.

Answer 5

Try SOAP4R
SOAP4R
Getting Started with SOAP4R
And I just heard about this on the Rails Envy Podcast (ep 31):
WS-Deathstar SOAP walkthrough

Answer 6

Just got my stuff working within 3 hours using Savon.
The Getting Started documentation on Savon's homepage was really easy to follow - and actually matched what I was seeing (not always the case)

Answer 7

Kent Sibilev from Datanoise had also ported the Rails ActionWebService library to Rails 2.1 (and above).
This allows you to expose your own Ruby-based SOAP services.
He even has a scaffold/test mode which allows you to test your services using a browser.

Answer 8

I have used HTTP call like below to call a SOAP method,
require 'net/http'
class MyHelper
def initialize(server, port, username, password)
#server = server
#port = port
#username = username
#password = password
puts "Initialised My Helper using #{#server}:#{#port} username=#{#username}"
end
def post_job(job_name)
puts "Posting job #{job_name} to update order service"
job_xml ="<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" xmlns:ns=\"http://test.com/Test/CreateUpdateOrders/1.0\">
<soapenv:Header/>
<soapenv:Body>
<ns:CreateTestUpdateOrdersReq>
<ContractGroup>ITE2</ContractGroup>
<ProductID>topo</ProductID>
<PublicationReference>#{job_name}</PublicationReference>
</ns:CreateTestUpdateOrdersReq>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>"
#http = Net::HTTP.new(#server, #port)
puts "server: " + #server + "port : " + #port
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(('/XISOAPAdapter/MessageServlet?/Test/CreateUpdateOrders/1.0'), initheader = {'Content-Type' => 'text/xml'})
request.basic_auth(#username, #password)
request.body = job_xml
response = #http.request(request)
puts "request was made to server " + #server
validate_response(response, "post_job_to_pega_updateorder job", '200')
end
private
def validate_response(response, operation, required_code)
if response.code != required_code
raise "#{operation} operation failed. Response was [#{response.inspect} #{response.to_hash.inspect} #{response.body}]"
end
end
end
/*
test = MyHelper.new("mysvr.test.test.com","8102","myusername","mypassword")
test.post_job("test_201601281419")
*/
Hope it helps. Cheers.

Answer 9

I have used SOAP in Ruby when i've had to make a fake SOAP server for my acceptance tests. I don't know if this was the best way to approach the problem, but it worked for me.
I have used Sinatra gem (I wrote about creating mocking endpoints with Sinatra here) for server and also Nokogiri for XML stuff (SOAP is working with XML).
So, for the beginning I have create two files (e.g. config.rb and responses.rb) in which I have put the predefined answers that SOAP server will return.
In config.rb I have put the WSDL file, but as a string.
##wsdl = '<wsdl:definitions name="StockQuote"
targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote.wsdl"
xmlns:tns="http://example.com/stockquote.wsdl"
xmlns:xsd1="http://example.com/stockquote.xsd"
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">
.......
</wsdl:definitions>'
In responses.rb I have put samples for responses that SOAP server will return for different scenarios.
##login_failure = "<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<s:Body>
<LoginResponse xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">
<LoginResult xmlns:a="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WEBMethodsObjects" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<a:Error>Invalid username and password</a:Error>
<a:ObjectInformation i:nil="true"/>
<a:Response>false</a:Response>
</LoginResult>
</LoginResponse>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>"
So now let me show you how I have actually created the server.
require 'sinatra'
require 'json'
require 'nokogiri'
require_relative 'config/config.rb'
require_relative 'config/responses.rb'
after do
# cors
headers({
"Access-Control-Allow-Origin" => "*",
"Access-Control-Allow-Methods" => "POST",
"Access-Control-Allow-Headers" => "content-type",
})
# json
content_type :json
end
#when accessing the /HaWebMethods route the server will return either the WSDL file, either and XSD (I don't know exactly how to explain this but it is a WSDL dependency)
get "/HAWebMethods/" do
case request.query_string
when 'xsd=xsd0'
status 200
body = ##xsd0
when 'wsdl'
status 200
body = ##wsdl
end
end
post '/HAWebMethods/soap' do
request_payload = request.body.read
request_payload = Nokogiri::XML request_payload
request_payload.remove_namespaces!
if request_payload.css('Body').text != ''
if request_payload.css('Login').text != ''
if request_payload.css('email').text == some username && request_payload.css('password').text == some password
status 200
body = ##login_success
else
status 200
body = ##login_failure
end
end
end
end
I hope you'll find this helpful!

Answer 10

I was having the same issue, switched to Savon and then just tested it on an open WSDL (I used http://www.webservicex.net/geoipservice.asmx?WSDL) and so far so good!
https://github.com/savonrb/savon