How do I use SOAP::Lite with WCF?

Question

I'm just trying to get started with WCF. It sounds like it is supposed to be super simple, but using a simple API like SOAP::Lite, I am having trouble getting anything to work. There are a lot of out dated examples in the googlesphere, and I have tried many of them to no avail. So now I am trying to break down the problem to its lowest level. I created the WCF app generated by the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express template. This is its service contract:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{

    [OperationContract]
    string GetData(int value);

    [OperationContract]
    CompositeType GetDataUsingDataContract(CompositeType composite);

    // TODO: Add your service operations here
}


// Use a data contract as illustrated in the sample below to add composite types to service operations.
[DataContract]
public class CompositeType
{
    bool boolValue = true;
    string stringValue = "Hello ";

    [DataMember]
    public bool BoolValue
    {
        get { return boolValue; }
        set { boolValue = value; }
    }

    [DataMember]
    public string StringValue
    {
        get { return stringValue; }
        set { stringValue = value; }
    }
}

I started it up in debug mode and tried to make contact. Doing so with a browser using the debug url http://localhost:59315/Service1.svc gives me a page saying this:

You have created a service.

To test this service, you will need to create a client and use it to call the service. You can do this using the svcutil.exe tool from the command line with the following syntax:

svcutil.exe http://localhost:59315/Service1.svc?wsdl

So, then I brows to that wsdl and get this:


  
    
      
        
          
            
              
                
                  
                    
                    
                      
                        
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                        
                        
                          
                        
                        
                          
                            
                              
                                
                                  
                                    
                                  
                                
                              
                            
                            
                              
                                
                              
                            
                            
                              
                                
                              
                            
                            
                            
                            
                          
                        
                        
                          
                            
                            
                            
                            
                          
                        
                        
                          
                            
                            
                            
                          
                        
                      
                    
                  
                
              
            
            
              
                
              
            
            
              
                
              
            
            
            
            
          
        
        
          
            
            
            
            
          
        
        
          
            
            
            
          
        
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
        
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
        
        
          
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
        
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
        
        
          
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
        
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
        
        
          
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
        
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
        
        
          
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
      
      
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
    
      
      
    
    
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
    
      
      
        
        
      
      
        
        
      
    
    
      
      
        
        
      
      
        
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
      
        http://localhost:59315/Service1.svc
        
          localhost

Nothing too crazy (other than SOAP itself)... Anyway, now I try a simple SOAP::Lite app:

#!/cygdrive/C/Perl64/bin/perl.exe -w

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;
use SOAP::Lite +trace => [ transport => sub {
    my ($in) = @_;
    if ( ref($in) eq "HTTP::Request") {
        print( "REQUEST
" . $in->content() . "
END REQUEST
" );
    } 
    elsif ( ref($in) eq "HTTP::Response") {
        print( "RESPONSE
" . $in->content() . "
END RESPONSE
" );
    }
} ];


my $server = 'http://localhost:59315/Service1.svc';
my $url = "$server?wsdl";
my $xmlns = 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/RossDominosService';

# Setup Network Connection
my $service = SOAP::Lite
    ->ns( $url )
    ->proxy( $server )
    ->on_fault( sub {
        my ($soap, $res) = @_;
        die ref $res ? $res->faultstring() : $soap->transport()->status(), "
";
    } );
;

print( Dumper( $service ) );

eval {
    print( "making request
" );
    my $response = $service->GetData( 
        SOAP::Data->new( name => 'value', value => 5 ) 
    );
    print( "got response:
$response
" );
};
if ( $@ ) {
    print( "failed:
**************************
$@
*****************************
" );
}

Which from the debug is issuing this SOAP request:

But the response comes back with:

failed:
**************************
415 Unsupported Media Type

*****************************

What is going on? This is the "Hello, World!" of SOAP apps and I cant figure it out.

-----------------------UPDATE-------------------------------

I found that I need to change the binding from its default of wsHttpBinding to:

Now it appears to connect, but I am getting this new error:


  
    
      a:ActionNotSupported
      The message with Action 'http://tempuri.org/GetData' cannot be processed at the receiver, due to a ContractFilter mismatch at the EndpointDispatcher. This may be because of either a contract mismatch (mismatched Actions between sender and receiver) or a binding/security mismatch between the sender and the receiver.  Check that sender and receiver have the same contract and the same binding (including security requirements, e.g. Message, Transport, None).

It doesn't seem like this should be so hard...

-----------------------UPDATE-------------------------------

Got it! After some more tinkering, and some assistance from soapUI, I figured out that the action needs to be modified so that it is:

//

in this case:

http://tempuri.org/IService1/GetData

When using SOAP::Lite, the default SOAPAction is

So you have to modify your soap object thusly:

$soap->on_action( sub { sprintf( '%sIService1/%s', @_ ) } );

I will write up the answer below so we can close this question...

Lucas · Accepted Answer

This is how I accomplished getting a WCF web service up and running with a perl SOAP::Lite client. Note that I am using Visual Web Developer Express 2008 and perl 5.14 with SOAP::Lite 0.715.

Open up Visual Web Developer
File -> New Project...
1. Visual C# -> Web
2. WCF Service Application
3. Name: WcfService1
4. Location:
5. Solution: new solution
6. Solution Name:
Open Web.config
- change to
- change to
Open Service1.svc.cs
- press f5 (to start debugging)

Now a browser window should pop up opened to your Service page. Take note of the port in the url, you will need it for the client. Then create this script:

#!/cygdrive/C/Perl64/bin/perl.exe -w

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;
use SOAP::Lite +trace => [ transport => sub {
    my ($in) = @_;
    if ( ref($in) eq "HTTP::Request") {
        print( "**** REQUEST ****
" . $in->content() . "
**** END REQUEST ****
" );
    } 
    elsif ( ref($in) eq "HTTP::Response") {
        print( "**** RESPONSE ****
" . $in->content() . "
**** END RESPONSE ****
" );
    }
} ];

my $port = 63181;
my $server = "http://localhost:$port/Service1.svc";
my $namespace = 'http://tempuri.org/';

# Setup Network Connection
my $service = SOAP::Lite
    ->ns( $namespace, 'my' )
    ->proxy( $server )
    ->on_action( sub { 
        my $action = sprintf( '%sIService1/%s', @_ );
        print( "action: '$action'
" ); 
        return $action;
    } );

print( Dumper( $service ) );

eval {
    print( "making request
" );
    my $response = $service->GetData( 
        SOAP::Data->new( prefix => 'my', name => 'value', value => 5 ) 
    );
    print( "got response:
$response
" );
};
if ( $@ ) {
    print( "failed:
**************************
$@
*****************************
" );
}

You will need to change the port number to match your port number. Also, I left in a bunch of the debug code so you can see what is going on.

I hope this helps someone else.

How do I use SOAP::Lite with WCF?

Answers (1)

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