# Simple ActionWebService code - yet problems

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 9, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840 "2006-12-09T02:08:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/1 "2006-12-09T02:08:39Z")

</div>

I have some very simple action web service code that just doesn’t want  
to work.

# app/controllers/quickbooks\_controller.rb

class QuickbooksController \< ApplicationController  
ssl\_required :api  
def authenticate(username, password)  
[“”, “”]  
end  
end

# app/apis/quickbooks\_api.rb

class QuickbooksApi \< ActionWebService::API::Base  
api\_method :authenticate,  
:expects =\> [{:strUserName =\> :string},  
{:strPassword =\> :string}],  
:returns =\> [[:string]]  
end

But when this SOAP message is posted…

\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?\>

\<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/)”  
xmlns:xsi=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance)”  
xmlns:xsd=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)”\>  
soap:Body  
  
test\_username  
abc123  
  
\</soap:Body\>  
\</soap:Envelope\>

… all hell breaks loose…

Processing QuickbooksController#api (for 123.456.789.213 at 2006-12-08  
16:44:35) [POST]  
Session ID: e021ad12268550b2e1e49b2241bb6456  
Parameters: {“action”=\>“api”, “controller”=\>“quickbooks”}

Web Service Request: authenticate(“test\_username”, “abc123”) Entrypoint:  
api

 \<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?\>\<soap:Envelope

xmlns:soap=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/)”  
xmlns:xsi=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance)”  
xmlns:xsd=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)”\>soap:Bodytest\_usernameabc123\</soap:Body\>\</soap:Envelope\>

ActionWebService::Dispatcher::DispatcherError (no such method  
‘authenticate’ on API QuickbooksApi):  
/vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/dispatcher/abstract.rb:154:in  
`web_service_invocation' /vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/dispatcher/abstract.rb:17:in `invoke\_web\_service\_request’  
/vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/dispatcher/action\_controller\_dispatcher.rb:55:in  
`dispatch_web_service_request' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure’  
/vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/dispatcher/action\_controller\_dispatcher.rb:53:in  
`dispatch_web_service_request' (eval):1:in `api’  
/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:982:in  
`perform_action_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:363:in `perform\_action\_without\_benchmark’  
/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/benchmarking.rb:66:in  
`perform_action_without_rescue' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/benchmark.rb:293:in `measure’  
/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/benchmarking.rb:66:in  
`perform_action_without_rescue' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:80:in `perform\_action’  
/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/base.rb:410:in  
`process_without_filters' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:372:in `process\_without\_session\_management\_support’  
/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/session\_management.rb:114:in  
`process' /vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:321:in `process’  
/vendor/rails/railties/lib/dispatcher.rb:41:in `dispatch' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel/rails.rb:73:in `process’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:551:in  
`process_client' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:550:in `process\_client’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:636:in  
`run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:636:in `run’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:625:in  
`run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:956:in `run’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel.rb:955:in  
`run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/bin/mongrel_rails:127:in `run’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/lib/mongrel/command.rb:199:in  
`run’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13.3/bin/mongrel\_rails:235  
/usr/local/bin/mongrel\_rails:18

Any ideas?

–  
Zack C.  
[http://depixelate.com](http://depixelate.com)

> **[TrackPlace.com is for sale | HugeDomains](https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=trackplace.com)**
>
> Start your new business venture with a great domain name. A trusted source for domains since 2005.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/2 "2006-12-10T03:16:34Z")

</div>

On 12/8/06, Zack C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> 

You must register that QuickbooksController implements QuickbooksApi  
like so:

class QuickbooksController  
web\_service\_api QuickbooksApi  
end

## – Kent

> **[DATANOISE.COM](https://www.datanoise.com)**
>
> DATANOISE.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/3 "2006-12-10T20:13:42Z")

</div>

On 12/9/06, Kent S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > end  
> > But when this SOAP message is posted…  
> > Kent
> 
> * * *
> 
> [http://www.datanoise.com](http://www.datanoise.com)
> 
> >

Kent,

Thanks for the help but I’m not sure if that is the problem.  
According to the source ActionController will implicitly load an api  
according to naming conventions. Here is the snip from the rdocs in  
actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/container/direct\_container.rb

```
    ...
    # A controller with a class name of GoogleSearchController will
    # implicitly load <tt>app/apis/google_search_api.rb</tt>, and 

```

expect the  
# API definition class to be named GoogleSearchAPI or  
# GoogleSearchApi.  
…  
def web\_service\_api(definition=nil)  
…  
end

My code follows these conventions. Even so I put in the call to test  
it out and no luck.

Any other ideas out there?

–  
Zack Chander  
[http://depixelate.com](http://depixelate.com)  
[http://trackplace.com](http://trackplace.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/4 "2006-12-10T22:08:01Z")

</div>

On 12/10/06, Zack C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> ```
> # API definition class to be named <tt>GoogleSearchAPI</tt> or
> 
> ```

Yes, you are right. I didn’t read your original email carefully. As  
for the problem,  
I’ve noticed that you are using non-default namespace for your web  
service. Make sure that  
you are setting your namespace in the controller correctly:

class QuickbooksController \< ApplicationController  
wsdl\_namespace “[http://developer.intuit.com](http://developer.intuit.com)”  
…  
end

## – Kent

> **[DATANOISE.COM](https://www.datanoise.com)**
>
> DATANOISE.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/5 "2006-12-11T21:53:49Z")

</div>

On 12/11/06, Zack C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> puts qb.authenticate(‘foo’, ‘bar’)
> 
> ```
> <n1:Authenticate xmlns:n1="urn:ActionWebService"
> env:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
> <strUserName xsi:type="xsd:string">foo</strUserName>
> <strPassword xsi:type="xsd:string">bar</strPassword>
> </n1:Authenticate>
> 
> ```
> 
> \</env:Body\>  
> \</env:Envelope\>
> 
> I’m at a loss here. Any other ideas? Or ideas on other ways to test?

That’s why you should act according to the WSDL which ActionWebService  
generates for you. I suspect that you have to also specify SOAPAction  
header when you use curl. The actual value of this header you can find  
in WSDL.

## – Kent

> **[DATANOISE.COM](https://www.datanoise.com)**
>
> DATANOISE.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/6 "2006-12-11T18:57:18Z")

</div>

On 12/10/06, Kent S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > ```
> > # A controller with a class name of GoogleSearchController will
> > 
> > ```
> 
> wsdl\_namespace “[http://developer.intuit.com](http://developer.intuit.com)”  
> …  
> end
> 
> ## – Kent
> 
> [http://www.datanoise.com](http://www.datanoise.com)
> 
> >

I tried setting the wsdl namespace but this had no effect. I’m  
actually not creating a client from wsdl so I doubt this will help.

The interesting thing is that everything works fine while testing. I  
wrote a quick tester script:

# lib/soap\_test.rb

require File.expand\_path(File.dirname( **FILE** ) +  
“/…/config/environment”)  
qb = ActionWebService::Client::Soap.new(QuickbooksApi,  
‘[http://www.localhost.com:3000/api/quickbooks/api](http://www.localhost.com:3000/api/quickbooks/api)’)  
puts qb.authenticate(‘foo’, ‘bar’)

This works fine although if you look at the source of  
ActionWebService::Client::Soap you can see that the QuickbooksApi  
methods are called directly and therefore the whole stack is not  
exercised.

So then I thought I’d try using curl.

curl -H “Content-Type: text/xml” -d @msg -X POST  
[http://www.localhost.com:3000/api/quickbooks/api](http://www.localhost.com:3000/api/quickbooks/api)

where msg:

\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?\>

\<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)”  
xmlns:env=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/)”  
xmlns:xsi=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance)”\>  
env:Body  
\<n1:Authenticate xmlns:n1=“urn:ActionWebService”  
env:encodingStyle=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/)”\>  
foo  
bar  
\</n1:Authenticate\>  
\</env:Body\>  
\</env:Envelope\>

This is the exact request soap message that the  
ActionWebService::Client::Soap client used in the previous test.  
However this barfs with:

RuntimeError (No valid method call - missing method name!):  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/parser.rb:476:in `parseMethodCall' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/marshal.rb:63:in `load\_call’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/marshal.rb:32:in `load_call' .//vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/protocol/xmlrpc_protocol.rb:36:in `decode\_request’  
.//vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/protocol/xmlrpc\_protocol.rb:32:in  
`decode_action_pack_request' .//vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/protocol/discovery.rb:20:in `discover\_web\_service\_request’  
.//vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action\_web\_service/protocol/discovery.rb:18:in  
`discover_web_service_request' .//vendor/rails/actionwebservice/lib/action_web_service/dispatcher/action_controller_dispatcher.rb:46:in `dispatch\_web\_service\_request’  
(eval):1:in `api' .//vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb:982:in `perform\_action\_without\_filters’

I’m at a loss here. Any other ideas? Or ideas on other ways to test?

–  
Zack C.  
[http://depixelate.com](http://depixelate.com)  
[http://trackplace.com](http://trackplace.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/7 "2006-12-12T00:42:39Z")

</div>

On 12/11/06, Zack C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> It turns out that the fact that authenticate is lower case crashes  
> AWS. I think that upper case is standard - I need to look into that.  
> I suppose this is a case of an screwed up web client. I’ll probably  
> monkey patch AWS to handle this or if I find out a SOAP method name  
> can be specified lowercase, I’ll submit a patch.
> 
> Thanks a ton for your help!

You don’t need to monkey-patch anything. When you define your API set  
‘inflect\_names’ to false, so AWS doesn’t camel-case your methods,  
like:

class QuickbooksApi \< ActionWebService::API::Base

inflect\_names false

api\_method :authenticate,  
:expects =\> [{:strUserName =\> :string}, {:strPassword =\> :string}],  
:returns =\> [[:string]]  
end

## – Kent

> **[DATANOISE.COM](https://www.datanoise.com)**
>
> DATANOISE.COM - Contact us for any business inquiries

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/8 "2006-12-12T00:20:31Z")

</div>

On 12/11/06, Kent S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > require File.expand\_path(File.dirname( **FILE** ) + “/…/config/environment”)
> > 
> > ```
> > xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
> > 
> > ```
> 
> * * *
> 
> [http://www.datanoise.com](http://www.datanoise.com)
> 
> >

Kent,

I really do appreciate your help…

I basically figured out the problem. The SOAP client (the Quickbooks  
Web Connector) sends the following message:

\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?\>

\<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/)”  
xmlns:soapenc=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/)”  
xmlns:tns=“[http://developer.intuit.com](http://developer.intuit.com)”  
xmlns:types=“[Intuit Developer](http://developer.intuit.com/encodedTypes)”  
xmlns:xsi=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance)”  
xmlns:xsd=“[http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema](http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema)”\>  
\<soap:Body  
soap:encodingStyle=“[http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/](http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/)”\>  
\<q1:authenticate xmlns:q1=“[http://developer.intuit.com/](http://developer.intuit.com/)”\>  
test\_username  
abc123  
\</q1:authenticate\>  
\</soap:Body\>  
\</soap:Envelope\>

It turns out that the fact that authenticate is lower case crashes  
AWS. I think that upper case is standard - I need to look into that.  
I suppose this is a case of an screwed up web client. I’ll probably  
monkey patch AWS to handle this or if I find out a SOAP method name  
can be specified lowercase, I’ll submit a patch.

Thanks a ton for your help!

–  
Zack C.  
[http://depixelate.com](http://depixelate.com)  
[http://trackplace.com](http://trackplace.com)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Zack\_C](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zack_C)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-actionwebservice-code-yet-problems/78840/9 "2006-12-12T00:46:40Z")

</div>

On 12/11/06, Kent S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> :returns =\> [[:string]]  
> end
> 
> ## – Kent
> 
> [http://www.datanoise.com](http://www.datanoise.com)
> 
> >

Kent,

Yes - I found that out a few minutes after posting…

Thanks a ton for your help!

–  
Zack C.  
[http://depixelate.com](http://depixelate.com)  
[http://trackplace.com](http://trackplace.com)