Python: how to use web services with SOAP

  • Python
  • Gabriele Romanato

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a communication protocol used for the transmission of messages between applications distributed on different platforms. In this article we will look at how to send a request to a web service in SOAP with Python.

First of all, you need to import the suds-jurko library, a Python library that allows you to access SOAP-based web services. This library can be installed using the following command:


pip install suds-jurko

Once the library is installed, the next step is to create a client for the web service we want to use. The client is created using the Client class of the library suds.client. The code to create the client might look like this:


from suds.client import Client

url = 'http://www.example.com/MyWebService.asmx?WSDL'
client = Client(url)

Once the client is created, we can call the web service methods using the syntax client.service.MethodName(). For example, if the web service has a method called Calculate, the code to call this method might look something like this:


result = client.service.Calculate(2, 3)
print(result)

In this example, the Calculate method takes two integer parameters and returns a result that is saved in the result variable.

Finally, it's important to handle any exceptions that might occur while calling the web service. For example, you may need to handle cases where the web service is unavailable or returns an error. The code to handle these exceptions might look something like this:


try:
    result = client.service.Calculate(2, 3)
    print(result)
except Exception as e:
    print(e)

In this example, the code for the Calculate method runs inside a try block. If an exception occurs, it is caught and handled inside the except block.

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