Sending XML via php and getting back a response - php

Question

I'm having problems sending the follwoing XML via PHP. I can't seem to get the script right it just comes back with a blank page. Any suggestions would be great. I am not coming up with any errors just nothing seems to happen.
POST /PubServices/WebServices/PublicationWebServices.asmx HTTP/1.1
Host: www.geminifund.com
Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: length
POST /PubServices/WebServices/PublicationWebServices.asmx HTTP/1.1
Host: www.geminifund.com
Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset= utf-8
Content-Length: length
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap12:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
<soap12:Body>
<GetHistroricalNav xmlns="http://www.geminifund.com/webservices/">
<startDate>dateTime</startDate>
<endDate>dateTime</endDate>
<portfolio>string</portfolio>
</GetHistroricalNav>
</soap12:Body>
</soap12:Envelope>
and my script is as follows
<?php
$url = "http://www.geminifund.com";
$post_string = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rootNode>
<innerNode>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soap:Body>
<GetHistroricalNav xmlns="http://www.geminifund.com/webservices/">
<startDate>2011-06-30</startDate>
<endDate>2011-7-30</endDate>
<portfolio>1778/portfolio>
</GetHistroricalNav>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
</innerNode>
</rootNode>';
$header = "POST /PubServices/WebServices/PublicationWebServices.asmx HTTP/1.1 \r\n";
$header .= "Content-type: text/xml \r\n";
$header .= "Content-length: ".strlen($post_string)." \r\n";
$header .= "Content-transfer-encoding: text \r\n";
$header .= "Connection: close \r\n\r\n";
$header .= $post_string;
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 4);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $header);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
if(curl_errno($ch))
print curl_error($ch);
else
curl_close($ch);
?>

Answer 1

When you write "it just comes back with a blank page " are you referring to a web browser response when you enter the url? If this is what you are referring to, what web browser are you using? I recommend you try different web browsers (Safari, FireFox, Chrome) and see what results you get.

Answer 2

Why are you using headers to set a POST method and doing a custom request? Curl is perfectly capable of doing a POST as is:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_string);
custom request is for when you want to do a less-common method, such as a HEAD or PUT request.

Answer 3

and PHP have SoapClient class to handle SOAP protocol. Are you sure you want to do it in hand-written manner, friend? :)