SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from - but works on WAMP

Php Problem Overview

This works fine on my WAMP server, but doesn't work on the linux master server!?

try{
	$client = new SoapClient('http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl', ['trace' => true]);
	$result = $client->checkVat([
		'countryCode' => 'DK',
		'vatNumber' => '47458714'
	]);
	print_r($result);
}
catch(Exception $e){
	echo $e->getMessage();
}

What am I missing here?! :(

SOAP is enabled

#Error

SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl' : failed to load external entity "http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl"/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl"

#Call the URL from PHP Calling the URL from PHP returns error

$wsdl = file_get_contents('http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl');
echo $wsdl;

#Error

Warning:  file_get_contents(http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 503 Service Unavailable

#Call the URL from command line

Calling the URL from the linux command line HTTP 200 is returned with a XML response

curl http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

Php Solutions

Solution 1 - Php

For some versions of php, the SoapClient does not send http user agent information. What php versions do you have on the server vs your local WAMP?

Try to set the user agent explicitly, using a context stream as follows:

try {
    $opts = array(
        'http' => array(
            'user_agent' => 'PHPSoapClient'
        )
    );
    $context = stream_context_create($opts);

    $wsdlUrl = 'http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl';
    $soapClientOptions = array(
        'stream_context' => $context,
        'cache_wsdl' => WSDL_CACHE_NONE
    );

    $client = new SoapClient($wsdlUrl, $soapClientOptions);

    $checkVatParameters = array(
        'countryCode' => 'DK',
        'vatNumber' => '47458714'
    );

    $result = $client->checkVat($checkVatParameters);
    print_r($result);
}
catch(Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

Edit

It actually seems to be some issues with the web service you are using. The combination of HTTP over IPv6, and missing HTTP User Agent string, seems to give the web service problems.

To verify this, try the following on your linux host:

curl  -A ''  -6 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

this IPv6 request fails.

curl  -A 'cURL User Agent'  -6 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

this IPv6 request succeeds.

curl  -A ''  -4 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl
curl  -A 'cURL User Agent'  -4 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

both these IPv4 request succeeds.

Interesting case :) I guess your linux host resolves ec.europa.eu to its IPv6 address, and that your version of SoapClient did not add a user agent string by default.

Solution 2 - Php

> Security issue: This answer disables security features and should not be used in production!

Try this. I hope it helps

$options = [
	'cache_wsdl'     => WSDL_CACHE_NONE,
	'trace'          => 1,
	'stream_context' => stream_context_create(
		[
			'ssl' => [
				'verify_peer'       => false,
				'verify_peer_name'  => false,
				'allow_self_signed' => true
			]
		]
	)
];

$client = new SoapClient($url, $options);

Solution 3 - Php

This issue can be caused by the libxml entity loader having been disabled.

Try running libxml_disable_entity_loader(false); before instantiating SoapClient.

Solution 4 - Php

It may be helpful for someone, although there is no precise answer to this question.

My soap url has a non-standard port(9087 for example), and firewall blocked that request and I took each time this error:

> ERROR - 2017-12-19 20:44:11 --> Fatal Error - SOAP-ERROR: Parsing > WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://soalurl.test:9087/orawsv?wsdl'; : > failed to load external entity "http://soalurl.test:9087/orawsv?wsdl"

I allowed port in firewall and solved the error!

Solution 5 - Php

Try changing

$client = new SoapClient('http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl', ['trace' => true]);

$client = new SoapClient('http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl', ['trace' => true, 'cache_wsdl' => WSDL_CACHE_MEMORY]);

Also (whether that works or not), check to make sure that /tmp is writeable by your web server and that it isn't full.

Solution 6 - Php

Try enabling openssl extension in your php.ini if it is disabled. This way I could access the web service without need of any extra arguments, i.e.,

$client = new SoapClient(url);

Solution 7 - Php

None of the above works for me, so after a lot of research, I ended up pre-downloading the wsdl file, saving it locally, and passing that file as the first parameter to SoapClient.

Worth mentioning is that file_get_contents($serviceUrl) returned empty response for me, while the url opened fine in my browser. That is probably why SoapClient also could not load the wsdl document. So I ended up downloading it with the php curl library. Here is an example

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $serviceUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
$wsdl = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$wsdlFile = '/tmp/service.wsdl';
file_put_contents($wsdlFile, $wsdl);

$client = new SoapClient($wsdlFile);

You can of course implement your own caching policy for the wsdl file, so it won't be downloaded on each request.

Solution 8 - Php

503 means the functions are working and you're getting a response from the remote server denying you. If you ever tried to cURL google results the same thing happens, because they can detect the user-agent used by file_get_contents and cURL and as a result block those user agents. It's also possible that the server you're accessing from also has it's IP address blackballed for such practices.

Mainly three common reasons why the commands wouldn't work just like the browser in a remote situation.

The default USER-AGENT has been blocked.
Your server's IP block has been blocked.
Remote host has a proxy detection.

Solution 9 - Php

After hours of analysis reading tons of logs and internet, finally found problem.

If you use docker and php 7.4 (my case) you probably get error because default security level in OpenSSL it too high for wsdl cert. Even if you disable verify and allow self-signed in SoapClient options.

You need lower seclevel in /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf from DEFAULT@SECLEVEL=2 to

DEFAULT@SECLEVEL=1

Or just add into Dockerfile

RUN sed -i "s|DEFAULT@SECLEVEL=2|DEFAULT@SECLEVEL=1|g" /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf

Source: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/30667#issuecomment-566482876

You can verify it by run on container

curl -A 'cURL User Agent' -4 https://ewus.nfz.gov.pl/ws-broker-server-ewus/services/Auth?wsdl

Before that change I got error:

SSL routines:tls_process_ske_dhe:dh key too small

Solution 10 - Php

I use the AdWords API, and sometimes I have the same problem. My solution is to add ini_set('default_socket_timeout', 900); on the file vendor\googleads\googleads-php-lib\src\Google\AdsApi\AdsSoapClient.php line 65

and in the vendor\googleads-php-lib\src\Google\AdsApi\Adwords\Reporting\v201702\ReportDownloader.php line 126 ini_set('default_socket_timeout', 900); $requestOptions['stream_context']['http']['timeout'] = "900";

Google package overwrite the default php.ini parameter.

Sometimes, the page could connect to 'https://adwords.google.com/ap i/adwords/mcm/v201702/ManagedCustomerService?wsdl and sometimes no. If the page connects once, The WSDL cache will contain the same page, and the program will be ok until the code refreshes the cache...

Solution 11 - Php

Adding ?wsdl at the end and calling the method:

$client->__setLocation('url?wsdl');

helped to me.

Solution 12 - Php

I might have read all questions about this for two days. None of the answers worked for me.

In my case I was lacking cURL module for PHP.

Be aware that, just because you can use cURL on terminal, it does not mean that you have PHP cURL module and it is active. There was no error showing about it. Not even on /var/log/apache2/error.log

How to install module: (replace version number for the apropiated one)

sudo apt install php7.2-curl
sudo service apache2 reload

Solution 13 - Php

I had the same problem

From local machines everything work (wamp + php5.5.38 or vagrant + php 7.4), but from prod linux server I had error

SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl' : failed to load external entity "http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl"

From redirect path plugin in chrome I discovered permanent redirect to https, but change url to https doesnt help.

Status Code    URL    IP    Page Type    Redirect Type    Redirect URL

301 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl 147.67.210.30 server_redirect permanent https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl 200 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl 147.67.210.30 normal none none

After few attempts of different code solutions helped my our server provider. He discovered problem in IP forwarding with ipv6.

http://ec.europa.eu/

Pinging ec.europa.eu [147.67.34.30] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Recommendation was user stream_context_create with socket and bind to 0:0. this forces ipv4

// https://www.php.net/manual/en/context.socket.php

$streamContextOptions = [
  'socket' => [
    'bindto' => '0:0'
  ],
];

$streamContext = stream_context_create($streamContextOptions);

$soapOptions = [
  'stream_context' => $streamContext
];

$service = new SoapClient('https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl', $soapOptions);

Solution 14 - Php

I had similar error because I accidently removed attribute [ServiceContract] from my contract, yet the service host was still opening successfully. Blunders happen

Solution 15 - Php

It was solved for me this way:

Every company from which you provide "Host" has a firewall.

This error occurs when your source IP is not defined in that firewall. Contact the server administrator to add the IP.

Or the target IP must be defined in the server firewall whitelist.

Solution 16 - Php

May try to see if the endpoint supports https as well

Solution 17 - Php

Below solution worked for me.

1- Go to php.ini in ubuntu with apache is /etc/php/7.4/apache2 ( note: you should use your php version replace by 7.4 )

2- Remove ; from this line ;extension=openssl to make in uncommented.

3- Restart your web server sudo service apache2 restart

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	clarkk	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Php	Ivar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Php	gogagubi	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Php	Attila Szeremi	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Php	EmRa228	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Php	klugerama	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Php	Juan Fernando	View Answer on Stackoverflow
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Solution 10 - Php	Yohann Nizon	View Answer on Stackoverflow
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Solution 17 - Php	seyed mohammad asghari	View Answer on Stackoverflow