Forum Discussion

SteveGregory's avatar
SteveGregory
Occasional Contributor
4 years ago

Unable to load https wsdl

When I try to create a new SOAP project and feed it a WSDL with an https URL (e.g. https://server/path/webservice?wsdl), the WSDL loads fine, but SoapUI tries to load related XSD files with the http ...
SOAP
  • SteveGregory's avatar
    SteveGregory
    4 years ago

    Sorry, Rich. I was trying to avoid unnecessary details so the problem was clear, but it seems I withheld too much.

     

    My organization hosts many web services. Rather than having to e-mail the WSDLs and XSDs to those who want to build clients for these services, we enabled the "?wsdl" feature within those services so all folks need is the web service endpoint and then they can pull down the necessary information themselves; however, since the server enforces https, people reported they were unable to create SoapUI projects as I've described, so I tried it myself and confirmed the issue.

     

    Once they have the XSD(s) (via e-mail or whatever), they are able to build their web service clients and they work fine. But while building these clients, it's common for people to use SoapUI for comprehension and troubleshooting. And SoapUI's New SOAP Project functionality can't create a new project based on a WSDL URL using the https protocol, as it tries to load the associated XSDs using the http protocol and fails. Perhaps this is just a SoapUI bug, but if there's a SoapUI setting that will get around it, or if there's some change I can make to the WSDLs that will make SoapUI behave, I'd like to know.

     

    The particular web service I tested just has the 1 related XSD file, and as shown previously, the include location in the WSDL is just the XSD's filename, as the XSD and the WSDL are in the same folder, so there are no absolute URLs (with protocol, etc.) in the WSDL (other than all the namespaces, which don't count). That leads me to believe it might be a SoapUI bug, but if it is, my Google searches haven't found anyone else mentioning it.

richie's avatar
richie
Community Hero
4 years ago
Hey SteveGregory,

Just asking some stupid questions to make sure i understand ok:

1. Youre attempting to create a new SOAP project via the .wsdl and its
2. The .wsdl does include schema references (its not mandatory)
3. The schema references are of the "import" type....i.e. the schemas arent embedded within the .wsdl itself
4. This is for a test environment, right? So editing the .wsdl is possible (if what you were doing was in "live" rather than a test environment, my suggestions wouldnt work)

If i understand correctly i think off the top of my head you have a couple of options relating to editing the .wsdl

1. Change the supported protocol from http to https so that the import uses https (im assuming you can do this although i dont know how to do this myself as ive never done it before)

OR

2. Download the .xsds you need and edit the .wsdl so that the schemas are embedded in .wsdl rather than leave them as using the import option (ive done this before....its not too diffcult, but its easy to make a mistake)

OR

3. Download the .xsds you need and edit the .wsdl so that the .xsd locations are in locations you define that are available via http (when i did this before i just stuck the .wsdls in a shared directory in dropbox).

Out of the 3 options ive mentioned above option 1 would be quickest/easiest, but ive no idea how to do it.
Option 2 is the most difficult, so i think id go for option 3 (which is pretty simple too), unless you know how to do option1

The above is the way id handle it....the other forum people might have some better options to try

Nice one!

Rich
  • richie's avatar
    richie
    Community Hero
    4 years ago
    Hey SteveGregory,

    I did see this stackoverflow and someone has thr same issue...they want to change http to https for xsd imports (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37940436/modify-php-soapclient-to-use-https-rather-than-http-for-getting-xsd-schema ). HOWEVER, it describes what you need to do loosely but not actual step by step details im afraid

    As i said before, i think getting copies of the schemas and repointing the import locations to some you control is the easiest option.

    Nice one,

    Rich
    • SteveGregory's avatar
      SteveGregory
      Occasional Contributor
      4 years ago

      It appears their solution in stackoverflow involves pulling the files down locally. I could ask our clients to manually download the WSDL file and the XSD (or I could just provide these files to them in an e-mail) and then create their SoapUI test projects from the local copies, but of course it's preferable if
      I could get the New SOAP Project From WSDL feature in SoapUI to behave as expected so clients can set up SoapUI projects, or get WSDL and schema updates in existing projects, on their own.

      • richie's avatar
        richie
        Community Hero
        4 years ago

        Hey SteveGregory 

         

        Answers to. your prompts:

         

        1.  it was a typo (difficult to type on my phone)

         

        3. yeah sorry i wasn't clear - I just meant whether the schema content was actually embedded within your .wsdl or whether the schema content was saved in a separate .xsd

         

        4.1 - what I meant by "supported protocol" was http or https.  From what you've said you need to hit the webservice using https - so this is what I meant by the supported protocol.  regarding changing <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/> to <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/https"/>, yeah - that http is actually a folder in the path, so changing that isnt gonna work - but I understand why you give it a shot.  Unfortunately switching http to https sounds straightforward, but I dont think it's a case of just adding an 's' in a couple of places in the .wsdl.  When I originally read about this a while back I think you actually have to rebuild some part of your code to support accepting the https rather than http - hence the reason why I mentioned in my initial post that it sounds the easiest option, but I've got no idea how to do it.

         

        4.2 - ok - so embedding the content rather than separate instances of the schemas is a non-starter

         

        4.3 - so you've nowhere you could store the xsd yourself.  also I appreciate your comment about not wanting multiple tech/req sources to maintain, but sometimes that this consideration can be overridden by necessity, however if you've got nowhere you can save the thing that kinda settles that option then

         

         

        I dont actually understand what you meant in your follow up post here -->

        SteveGregory wrote: I could ask our clients to manually download the WSDL file and the XSD (or I could just provide these files to them in an e-mail) and then create their SoapUI test projects from the local copies, but of course it's preferable if

        I could get the New SOAP Project From WSDL feature in SoapUI to behave as expected so clients can set up SoapUI projects, or get WSDL and schema updates in existing projects, on their own.

         

         

        It's a 3rd party webservice right.....I assumed that you would be testing a 3rd parties webservice - is that not right?  Why would your 'clients' be testing it?

         

        Worst case - you dont actually need the .wsdl nor the .xsds - they just save you a little time, effort and headache - it's still straightforward to create a SOAP project without the .wsdl/xsd's - you just need to be provided the details of the webservice and payload and create the project, the APIs and the tests manually.

         

        Cheers,

         

        Rich

  • SteveGregory's avatar
    SteveGregory
    Occasional Contributor
    4 years ago

    1 I'm unsure what you meant by "and its", but I'm in SoapUI 5.5.0 and I click on the SOAP icon or do File / New Soap Project, and then enter the URL of the WSDL in the "Initial WSDL" field, and hit "OK".
    2 Yes, the WSDL contains:
    <types>
    <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" targetNamespace="http://my.name.space/" version="1.0">
    <xsd:include schemaLocation="mySchema.xsd"/>
    </xsd:schema>
    </types>
    As you can see, it is a relative location (in the same folder as the wsdl) so I'm confused why it uses the server and path from the WSDL's URL but changes the protocol.
    3 Not embedded, but "include" rather than "import".
    4.1 I'm not sure what you mean about changing the "supported protocol". There is an entry that reads:
    <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
    ..but when I changed that to ../soap/https"/> it broke something in the flow and wouldn't build.
    (My web service is running in IBM AppConnect.)
    4.2 IBM AppConnect requires the schema be separate from the WSDL, so no can do.
    4.3 I don't believe I have an unsecured server available, and having a schema file separate from the web service server, that would need to be kept synchronized with the schema file in the app if there are changes, would be added maintenance and risk.

     

    Of those, the most promising path of exploration seems to be changing the binding transport to ..https and trying to get rid of the errors it causes elsewhere in the app, but do any of these further details give you any ideas?

     

    Thanks.