Nerd Factor: 8

I am trying to call an Exact Target Web Services (SOAP) API via PHP and there is this problem where the __getLastRequest() is showing that my data isn’t actually being put into the request. It looks like I’m not passing any data aside from the basic XML showing the method name.

It has been a while since I ran into this issue and so I wanted to make note of it on a blog, somewhere indexed more thoroughly by Google, so the next person who ran into the problem would save a little time.

The skinny:  You need to explicitly encode the objects that are being sent to the service.

If you want to pass no data:

$sfs = new ExactTarget_SalesforceSend();
$sfs->Email = $e;
$sfs->Targets = array( $t );
$sfs->FromName = "Lead/Contact Owner Name";
$request = new ExactTarget_CreateRequest();
$request->Options = NULL;
$request->Objects = array($object);
$results = $client->Create($request);

If you do indeed want to pass data:

$sfs = new ExactTarget_SalesforceSend();
$sfs->Email = $e;
$sfs->Targets = array( $t );
$sfs->FromName = "Lead/Contact Owner Name";
$object = new SoapVar($sfs, SOAP_ENC_OBJECT, 'SalesforceSend', "http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI");
$request = new ExactTarget_CreateRequest();
$request->Options = NULL;
$request->Objects = array($object);
$results = $client->Create($request);

That bolded line tells php/soap that it needs to encode based on a specific element in the wsdl schema.  In other languages you can use wsdl2java and end up with classes that you can just pass along and they get serialized the right way.  PHP and other languages of that group (Perl, Ruby) need to explicitly encode the data that is being passed.  You would expect that passing an array/dictionary/object into the function expecting that element would work – but no – it just needs to be told ever so gently which data type it should use.

Of note:  I belive this may just happen when inheritance is used in publishing the web service (.Net and Java) which is represented in the wsdl file like this:

<extension base="tns:APIObject">

For Google, the error I was getting was:

Requested value 'APIObject' was not found.

If you are making a website – and who isn’t lately – you need to make a theme for the site.  I an not stylistically inclined and am also colorblind, so I have a couple tools that I use when building sites that help me with that side of things.  One of them is ColorSchemeDesigner.com – a really great tool to help you get your colors right.

Previously, most of my sites were “yellow”, “green”, and “red” to add color.  Now they are shades of all different colors that actually jive together.  I don’t recognize much of the improvement but people say it’s better.

The last truly usable, well-performing version of Excel is obviously Excel 2003. It has all the features you need without the needlessly redesigned UI and massive bloat. Plus, it works nice and quickly in my XP virtual machine on my MacBook Pro.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of using Windows Update on automatic mode.  It installed some garbage called “Office Live Add-in” which will not go away.  Even when you disable the toolbar, delete it, whatever… it comes back every time you restart Excel.  Here’s how it works:

Click here to watch the flash web recording