We are using PB12.0. Up until now we have been using the EasySOAP engine to consume a 3rd party's web service. The 3rd party came out with a newer version of their webservice. They recommended we try to switch to this new version which utilizes SOAP 1.2 (I believe).
Problem #1: We cannot build a new web service proxy client with the EasySOAP engine.
Their old web service exposed the WSDL through a .asmx file. The new web service exposes the WSDL though a .svc file. From my understanding, (I'm not a web developer) .asmx was an older web service framework, and .svc uses newer .net framework and/or WCF. Anytime I try to obtain the services from the URL to the .svc file, I get an 'Unknown Exception' error, or else PB crashes.
That's ok to me, I wanted to move up to the .NET SOAP engine anyway. After learning how to adjust our structures to objects, and how to import the proper SOAP connection and exception objects from the correct .pbx files (Thanks Bruce A. and Paul H.!), and how to work with and null back out some complex nested object arrays, I thought I was in business. But then came problem #2.
Problem #2: The .NET SOAP engine seems to have a problem passing some array data.
Various invoices we were passing to the web service were failing. One piece of data (the SKU) is considered conditional...it's only required if another piece of data (a Product Group and Item) is null. A web service exception was saying that we weren't passing the Product Group and Item, and as such, the SKU was required and the entire data set was invalid because neither was provided. To make matters worse, I found that this error was only happening when there were multiple line items in the invoice. In terms of the proxy objects, the invoice object contains an array of line-item objects. The problem is only occurring if the line-item array has more than one element. The PB debugger clearly showed that the Product Group and Item WAS getting populated (whether 1 or more line-items) and existed right up to the call to the web service method. The 3rd party's support team said the problem was not on their web service and suggested I install Fiddler and catch the http request being sent to the web service. Great idea on his part, because Fiddler DID show that the Product Group and Item were nil any time there were multiple line-items on the invoice.
Since the PB debugger shows the array data having values, but Fiddler shows that the same data is nil in the SOAP envelope of the http request, I've jumped to the conclusion that the .NET SOAP engine has some sort of bug. Has anyone else seen this problem? Or have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Glenn