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

Question

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.

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);

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

Try running libxml_disable_entity_loader(false); before instantiating SoapClient.

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!

Try changing

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

to

$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.

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.

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.

1) The default USER-AGENT has been blocked. 2) Your server's IP block has been blocked. 3) Remote host has a proxy detection.