How to do error handling of SOAP request failures? - php

Question

I'm writing a PHP application which does a SOAP request. Sometimes their server isn't up or has some sort of problem and my application blows with an error like this:
Undefined property: stdClass::$getSomethingJSONResult
There could be a number of reasons why the SOAP request fails and I want to be able to check for those error conditions so the program can handle it.
I have two SOAP functions I use in PHP. One for logging in to the SOAP server and the other for making a query to get the soapFunction. They look something like this:
// --------------------- FUNCTIONS -----------------------
function login_soap($username,$password) {
global $soapClient;
$soapURL = "http://SOAPServerSomeplace.asmx?WSDL";
$ns = 'http://microsoft.com/webservices/'; //Namespace of the WS.
$soapParameters = array('userName' => $username, 'password' => $password);
$soapClient = new SoapClient($soapURL);
$header = new SoapHeader($ns,'UserCredentials',$soapParameters,false);
$soapClient->__setSoapHeaders($header);
}
// -------------------------------------------------------
function getSomething($option) {
global $soapClient;
$soapFunctionParameters = array('this' => $option) ;
$soapFunction = "getSomethingJSON" ;
$this_json = $soapClient->$soapFunction($soapFunctionParameters);
$stdClassObject = json_decode($this_json->getSomethingJSONResult);
$this_obj = $stdClassObject->this;
return $this_obj;
}
// -------------------------------------------------------
I was wondering if I could just do this:
if (login_soap($username,$password)) {
echo "This worked." . "\n";
} else {
echo "This failed." . "\n";
}
or with getSomething($option)?
I don't know how to simulate a SOAP request failure to test this, but I think the SOAP request failing would cause PHP to abort. I'd need to capture this so it doesn't abort PHP so I can direct it to do something else.
My first concern is to make sure the SOAP request worked. Then check the JSON file it returns to make sure it has all the data needed before the program proceeds. Checking the JSON file I have figured out, but not with the SOAP request. Thanks!

Answer 1

SOAP will throw a SoapFault Exception if there is an error. You just have to catch the Exception and you can handle the error.
http://www.php.net/manual/de/class.soapfault.php

Answer 2

The SoapClient can throw exceptions if there are errors.
If throwing of exceptions is disabled, those exception objects are only returned. You'd have to check whether the return value is an instance of SoapFault, but the better approach would be to throw them, and use try/catch.
This is even more true because the SoapClient cannot detect HTTP errors otherwise. You MUST throw errors as exceptions if you want to catch those errors as well (it does not work if XDebug is enabled, though, but this should only be the case in development).