Zend Framework 1.6.2 Manual

SOAP functionality implemented within Zend Framework is intended to make all steps required for SOAP communications more simple.

SOAP is language inedpendent protocol. So it may be used not inly for PHP-to-PHP communications.

There are three configurations for SOAP applications where Zend Framework may be utilized:

1. SOAP server PHP application <---> SOAP client PHP application
2. SOAP server non-PHP application <---> SOAP client PHP application
3. SOAP server PHP application <---> SOAP client non-PHP application

We always have to know, which functionality is provided by SOAP server to operate with it. » WSDL is used to describe network service API in details.

WSDL language is complex enough (see » http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl for the details). So it's difficult to prepare correct WSDL description.

Another problem is synchronizing changes in network service API with already existing WSDL.

Both these problem may be solved by WSDL autogeneration. A prerequisite for this is a SOAP server autodiscovery. It constructs object similar to object used in SOAP server application, extracts necessary information and generates correct WSDL using this information.

There are two ways for using Zend Framework for SOAP server application:

• Use separated class.

• Use set of functions

Both methods are supported by Zend Framework Autodiscovery functionality.

Zend_Soap_AutoDiscovery class also supports datatypes mapping from PHP to » XSD types.

Here is an example of common usage of the autodiscovery functionality:

setClass('My_SoapServer_Class');
$autodiscover->handle();