A simple PHP script to view a daily Dilbert cartoon made available by United Media as a demonstration of SOAP technology. The WDSL service is usually made available by eSynaps.com.
This is a simple, straight-forward implementation of getting a Dilbert image everyday using PHP, SOAP (the NuSoap class from Deitrich Ayala) , and the Dilbert web service provided by eSynaps.com. Assuming that you have downloaded all the files of NUSOAP, the code is really simple:
<?
// Include the SOAP classes
require_once(‘nusoap.php’);
// No params required for this soap call
$param = array();
// Define path to server application
$serverpath =’http://www.esynaps.com/WebServices/DailyDiblert.asmx’;
// Define method namespace
$namespace=”http://tempuri.org/DailyDilbertImagePath”;
// Create client object
$client = new soapclient($serverpath);
// Create client object
$soapaction = ‘http://tempuri.org/DailyDilbertImagePath’;
// Make a SOAP request
$imgPath = $client->call(‘GetBriefings’,$param,
$namespace,$soapaction);
// Catch errors, or output error info
if (isset($fault))
{
// Fault is initialized. Something went wrong
echo ‘Error: ‘ . $fault;
}
else if ($imgPath == -1)
{
// Error encountered
echo ‘No image found yet.’;
}
else
{
// Otherwise output the result
echo ‘<p><img src=”‘ . $imgPath . ‘” alt=”Daily Dilbert” /></p>’;
}
// Kill object
unset($client);
?>
Click here to see today’s Daily Dilbert comic (on our main page)
Other useful resources
- Access many, many comics through PHP using the “phpcomic” class (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpcomic)
- Long list of SOAP services (http://xmethods.net)
11 Comments
Excelent short example
Thats pretty cool, can you post the server side code, I’m very interested to see how that works as well. Thanks.
Danny, this *is* already server side code. It’s PHP.
Shanx, this is not server side code, this is client side. We’re talking about web services, not about what php is
IF you’ll notice, the server-side (SOAP server) is a .NET web service running on a totally different server. Chances are that they aren’t going to give you their code. This PHP just calls that service.
Tried the code, but get this error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in c:\wamp\www\soap\dilbert.php on line 13
which is:
$namespace=”http://tempuri.org/DailyDilbertImagePath“;;
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
You seem to have two semi-colons to end that statement. Try removing it.
I just get:
Daily Dilbert
I mean:
<p><img src=”" alt=”Daily Dilbert” /></p>
on Fedora Linux.
Any sugestion?
TIA
Roberto
Hi
I copied the code given above and pasted in my own created file called dilbert.php. Copied the nusoap class from the given path. but when i try to excute the script it shows nothing rather than a blank page without any error message.
Please help me to sort it out.
Thanks
Roberto, I get the same thing. if I do a print_r on $imgPath, I get ”
Array
(
[faultcode] => soap:Client
[faultstring] => System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Unable to handle request without a valid action parameter. Please supply a valid soap action.
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.Soap11ServerProtocolHelper.RouteRequest()
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.Initialize()
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.ServerProtocolFactory.Create(Type type, HttpContext context, HttpRequest request, HttpResponse response, Boolean& abortProcessing)
[detail] =>
)
“
makes: Try making sure all your ‘ ” are not special characters.
Once I fixed that though, I got the same problem as roberto.