Calling .NET Web Services from PHP (links to examples)
Back from a nice long vacation and got a quick question from a customer regarding how to call a .NET Web Service from PHP. In theory, if a PHP developer can call a Java-based (or any other platform) web service, the PHP developer should be able to call a .NET web service. In most cases this is true. Issues can pop-up depending on what SOAP tool kit or platform version is used when combined with complex WSDLs or adding something like WS-Security or authentication to a web service call. For anyone looking for working examples, here are a couple of links to calling web services published by Microsoft from PHP:
MapPoint Web Service PHP Sample
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c87c622f-c4b7-41c7-9621-aefb7c536b60&displaylang=en
The sample PHP code is located here after installation of the MapPoint sample on my machine:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft MapPoint Web Service Samples\phplocator
Hello adCenter Sample in PHP
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb126216.aspx
The adCenter example at the above link gives steps to follow to make the SOAP call. I’m not suggesting that you would want to get an adCenter account (or a MapPoint account for that matter though you may:-)) but the instructions for PHP at the above link for the adCenter sample are pretty detailed and should help with getting started.
