Using OnVif PullPoint Services with Zeep

Question

I'm having hard time in trying to subscribe to the OnVif pullpoint services in standard IP cameras.

The SOAP client I'm using is Zeep https://python-zeep.readthedocs.io/en/master/index.html

It seems that Zeep constructs erroneous xml data, but I could be wrong (thanks to my limited knowledge of SOAP). Let's see the example:

from zeep.client import Client, CachingClient, Settings
from zeep.wsse.username import UsernameToken
import zeep.helpers

import logging.config

# # Put Zeep into verbose mode
logging.config.dictConfig({
    'version': 1,
    'formatters': {
        'verbose': {
            'format': '%(name)s: %(message)s'
        }
    },
    'handlers': {
        'console': {
            'level': 'DEBUG',
            'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',
            'formatter': 'verbose',
        },
    },
    'loggers': {
        'zeep.transports': {
            'level': 'DEBUG',
            'propagate': True,
            'handlers': ['console'],
        },
    }
})

ip="192.168.0.134"; user="admin"; passwd="123456"; port=80 # My home cam 1.  Now you know its username and password.  :)

settings = Settings()
settings.strict = False
settings.xml_huge_tree = True

# # WSDL File
url = "https://www.onvif.org/ver10/events/wsdl/event.wsdl"

# # *** Events Service ***
xaddr = "http://"+ip+"/onvif/events_service"
print("creating a soap client with url = ", url)
zeep_client_events = CachingClient(wsdl=url, wsse=UsernameToken(user, passwd, use_digest=True), settings=settings)
print("soap client created")
print("binding to service")
ws_client_events = zeep_client_events.create_service("{http://www.onvif.org/ver10/events/wsdl}EventBinding", xaddr)
print("service OK")

# # *** PullPoint Service ***
xaddr = "http://"+ip+"/onvif/events_service"
print("creating a soap client with url = ", url)
zeep_client_pp = CachingClient(wsdl=url, wsse=UsernameToken(user, passwd, use_digest=True), settings=settings)
print("soap client created")
print("binding to service")
ws_client_pp = zeep_client_pp.create_service("{http://www.onvif.org/ver10/events/wsdl}PullPointSubscriptionBinding", xaddr)
print("service bound")

res = ws_client_events.CreatePullPointSubscription()

# # could see the namespaces like this:
# zeep_client_pp.namespaces

# # could create PullMessages' parameters like this:
# pm = zeep_client_pp.get_element("ns7:PullMessages")()

# So, this call never works
ws_client_pp.PullMessages(MessageLimit=1, Timeout="PT1S")

Depending on the camera, this always results in "Remote end closed connection without response" or otherwise, the server sends a message that the value is invalid.

When putting Zeep into verbose mode and inspecting the SOAP message body (confirmed this with Wireshark as well) it look like this:

<soap-env:Body>
    <ns0:PullMessages xmlns:ns0="http://www.onvif.org/ver10/events/wsdl">
        <ns0:Timeout>P%P</ns0:Timeout>
        <ns0:MessageLimit>1</ns0:MessageLimit>
    </ns0:PullMessages>
</soap-env:Body>

So it seems that the string "PT1S" doesn't make its way into the message body, but there persists that "P%P" instead !

How to convince Zeep to insert the correct time in place?

P. S. And please, don't tell me to use "python-onvif-zeep". Of course I did that first and then ended up with this question (the examples of "python-onvif-zeep" for pullpoint services don't work)

Answer 1

Must be of the class isodate.Duration. This fixes the problem:

import isodate
Timeout = isodate.Duration(seconds=10)