# Generic SOAP client?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-soap-client/80590>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 29, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-soap-client/80590 "2006-12-29T00:55:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dandante)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-soap-client/80590/1 "2006-12-29T00:55:46Z")

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Does anyone know if there is a ruby/rails version of a generic soap  
client like this one:

[http://soapclient.com/soaptest.html](http://soapclient.com/soaptest.html)

Or, sort of like the scaffolding generated by ActionWebService with the  
following differences:  
-it can be created just from a WSDL; that is, doesn’t need to be in the  
same app as the service; and  
-supports array and complex type parameters

In other words, I want a rails app that will, given a wsdl, generate a  
page for each method allowing me to populate the method parameters in a  
form, then click submit and see the results of the SOAP call (merely  
displaying the SOAP response  
would be enough).

Does anyone know of such a thing?  
I may work on something like it but want to be sure it isn’t already out  
there…  
Thanks  
Dan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dandante)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-soap-client/80590/2 "2006-12-29T02:48:29Z")

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Here is the simple SOAP Client (only 4 lines of code) to get handle on  
actual SOAP object

[http://www.openapp.org/f2/upload/viewtopic.php?id=36](http://www.openapp.org/f2/upload/viewtopic.php?id=36)

This a quick of getting what you want, then you can get fancy with  
ActionWebService API to create your wrapper around the SOAP service.

-Rajesh

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**Author:** ![dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@dandante](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dandante)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-soap-client/80590/3 "2006-12-29T02:57:18Z")

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rshetty wrote:

> Here is the simple SOAP Client (only 4 lines of code) to get handle on  
> actual SOAP object
> 
> [http://www.openapp.org/f2/upload/viewtopic.php?id=36](http://www.openapp.org/f2/upload/viewtopic.php?id=36)
> 
> This a quick of getting what you want, then you can get fancy with  
> ActionWebService API to create your wrapper around the SOAP service.
> 
> -Rajesh

Thanks, but that’s not quite what I want. In that example, the method  
that you call and the parameters you pass are hardcoded. Sure, I can  
introspect on the ‘service’ object and see what methods it has, but I  
really need a formal list of parameters with types in order to do what I  
want to do, which is: dynamically create a web interface with the  
appropriate form items such that when I submit the form, the web  
service method is called over soap. It seems like there are methods in  
the WSDL and SOAP packages that might give me what I want, but they are  
not documented in the rdoc–does anyone know of a place where these  
libraries are explained in more detail?

Anyway, that’s more of a ruby question, and the reason I posted this on  
the rails list was that I was hoping something along these lines already  
existed as a rails app. I would use the generic client that’s available  
online except:  
-the services I want to test are behind a firewall  
-that client is windows-only and I am not.