Best way to create PHP Web Service

Question

Not really a PHP developer, but I have PHP hosting and would like to create a PHP Web Service on it to be consumed by a .NET Client, I am thinking of using WSDL with NUSoap.

OR

A more modern solution, which I am not sure would be easier, would be to use OData. Which one would be easier?

Answer 1

The easiest for you c# developers is to develop a soap service with a WSDL. It will be a pain to create the service in php.

A better alternative is to create a REST webservice that communicates using JSON. It will take a bit more code on the client side, but it will be easier to consume on other platforms, and will be snap to develop in php.

Here is an example of a very simple REST-JSON web server in php.

function finder($person)
{
     $data = array();

     $data['sue']['full_name'] = 'Sue Thompson';
     $data['sue']['location']['city'] = 'San Francisco';
     $data['sue']['location']['state'] = 'California';

     $data['jack']['full_name'] = 'Jack Black';
     $data['jack']['location']['city'] = 'San Anselmo';
     $data['jack']['location']['state'] = 'California'; 

    if (!isset($data[$person))
    {
        return $data[$person];
    }
    else
    {
        // make sure you document this
        return array('error' => "An error has occured");
    }
}

// you can take parameters as url query strings or as json.
// if your input is simple, query strings are easier. 
$person = $_GET['person'];

echo json_encode(finder($person));