Rails - Jan 2006 - Rails ActionWebService and gSOAP interoperability problem

Hi!

I''ve successfully created a Rails web service. I can connect to it  
with an XML-RPC client, without any problems at all. However, when I  
try to use a gSOAP application to connect to the web service, it  
doesn''t work. The back trace that I get is at the end of this  
message. From the back trace, it appears that the SOAP request is not  
being recognized as a SOAP request, and is instead being routed to  
the XML RPC protocol handler.

Inspecting discovery.rb shows that things fall over when decoding the  
action pack request. If it tried SOAP first, that wouldn''t be a  
problem. Or if it tried to grok XML RPC and failed, it should have  
fallen back to SOAP?
> def discover_web_service_request(action_pack_request)
>             (self.class.read_inheritable_attribute 
> ("web_service_protocols") || []).each do |protocol|
>               protocol = protocol.create(self)
>               request = protocol.decode_action_pack_request 
> (action_pack_request)
>               return request unless request.nil?
>             end
>             nil
> end
Ideally, I''d like to specify in environment.rb or in my controller  
that Rails should use SOAP, and never XML RPC. Is that possible? What  
about telling Rails to try SOAP first? Won''t that just bring problems  
in the inverse situation?

I wish I didn''t have to use gSOAP, but I''m creating the client
for an
embedded system and can''t run Java, a scripting language or anything  
that''s not C. Eric Kidds XML-RPC library seems a little too  
heavyweight due to its reliance on libwww. I''d appreciate some help.

-- G.
> Processing FeePaymentsController#api (for 10.0.0.5 at 2006-01-06  
> 23:26:39) [POST]
>   Parameters: {"<SOAP-ENV:Envelope><SOAP- 
>
ENV:Body><n1:FindStudent><student_id>0</student_id></
>
n1:FindStudent></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>"=>"",
> "action"=>"api",
"controller"=>"fee_payments"}
>
>
> RuntimeError (No valid method call - missing method name!):
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/parser.rb:478:in
`parseMethodCall''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/marshal.rb:63:in `load_call''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/xmlrpc/marshal.rb:32:in `load_call''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/protocol/xmlrpc_protocol.rb:36:in
`decode_request''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/protocol/xmlrpc_protocol.rb:32:in  
> `decode_action_pack_request''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/protocol/discovery.rb:20:in  
> `discover_web_service_request''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/protocol/discovery.rb:18:in `each''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/protocol/discovery.rb:18:in  
> `discover_web_service_request''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionwebservice-1.0.0/lib/ 
> action_web_service/dispatcher/action_controller_dispatcher.rb:44:in  
> `dispatch_web_service_request''
>     (eval):1:in `api''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/base.rb:853:in `send''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/base.rb:853:in `perform_action_without_filters''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/filters.rb:332:in
`perform_action_without_benchmark''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in  
> `perform_action_without_rescue''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in `measure''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in  
> `perform_action_without_rescue''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in `perform_action''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/base.rb:369:in `send''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/base.rb:369:in  
> `process_without_session_management_support''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/ 
> action_controller/session_management.rb:116:in `process''
>     /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/dispatcher.rb: 
> 38:in `dispatch''
>