Why is this Web Service called from Matlab receiving null? - matlab

Question

I have created a very basic Web Service "operation" with an operation called "hello". It works perfectly from SoapUI, but when I use Matlab 2014a to call it, the input parameters are never obtained. So hello() always returns "Hello null!" and other operations, such as addition(), always returns 0. I have followed Matlab help and I am unable to see what is going on.
What I have done is:
>> createClassFromWsdl('http://ip/WebServiceTest/operation?wsdl')
ans = operation
>> obj = operation
endpoint: 'http://ip/WebServiceTest/operation'
wsdl: 'http://ip/WebServiceTest/operation?wsdl'
>> methods(obj)
addition display hello operation
>> hello(obj, 'John')
ans =
Hello null!
This demonstrates that the Web Service is called correctly and it returns an answer, but the input parameter is not obtained.
The generated code hello.m seems fine to me:
function xReturn = hello(obj,name)
%hello(obj,name)
%
% Input:
% name = (string)
%
% Output:
% return = (string)
% Build up the argument lists.
values = { ...
name, ...
};
names = { ...
'name', ...
};
types = { ...
'{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string', ...
};
% Create the message, make the call, and convert the response into a variable.
soapMessage = createSoapMessage( ...
'http://webservices/', ...
'hello', ...
values,names,types,'document');
response = callSoapService( ...
obj.endpoint, ...
'', ...
soapMessage);
xReturn = parseSoapResponse(response);
I have captured network traffic to see the SOAP message and Matlab sends indeed the parameter, and the message looks fine:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<soap:Body soap:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<hello xmlns="http://webservices/">
<name xsi:type="xs:string">John</name>
</hello>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
The same message from SoapUI, which returns a correct Hello John! value would look like:
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:web="http://webservices/">
<soapenv:Header/>
<soapenv:Body>
<web:hello>
<!--Optional:-->
<name>John</name>
</web:hello>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
What is it happening?
EDIT
I have also found this in the logs:
Received WS-I BP non-conformant Unquoted SoapAction HTTP header

Answer 1

After a lot of testing, I believe this is due to an error on old Matlab Web Service implementation, especially related to the lack of explicit namespace here <hello xmlns="http://webservices/">
From version 2014b there is a new way to call Web Services based on JDK and Apache CXF, and using the Web Services are called correctly. According to the documentation, the steps are:
Install and/or locate the Java JDK and Apache CXF programs.
Set the
paths to the JDK and CXF programs using the
matlab.wsdl.setWSDLToolPath function. Values for the paths are saved
across sessions in your user preferences, so you only need to
specify them once.
Change the MATLAB current folder to the location
where you want to use the files generated from the WSDL document.
You must have write-permission for this folder.
Run
matlab.wsdl.createWSDLClient, supplying the WSDL document location,
which can be a URL or a path to a file. The function converts the
server's APIs to a MATLAB class, and creates a class folder in the
current folder. The class folder contains methods for using the
server's APIs. The function always creates a constructor method that
has the same name as the class. You only need to run the
matlab.wsdl.createWSDLClient function once. You can access the class
anytime after that.
Create an object of the class whenever you want
to use the operations of the service.
View information about the
class to see what methods (operations) are available for you to use.
Use the methods of the object to run applications on and exchange
data with the server. MATLAB automatically converts XML data types
to MATLAB types, and vice versa.
Note: Depending on the version of Matlab used you might be required to provide a minimum or specific version of JDK
An example can be:
jdk = 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_79'
cxf = 'C:\Program Files\apache\apache-cxf-2.7.18'
matlab.wsdl.setWSDLToolPath('JDK',jdk,'CXF',cxf)
matlab.wsdl.createWSDLClient('http://ip/WebServiceTest/operation?wsdl')
javaaddpath('.\+wsdl\operation.jar')
obj = operation
methods(obj)
hello(obj, 'John')
The newer version produces the following SOAP message:
<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<S:Body>
<ns2:hello xmlns:ns2="http://webservices/">
<name>John</name>
</ns2:hello>
</S:Body>
</S:Envelope>