Question

I try to talk to a load balancer (Zeus ZXTM) with python:

a = client.factory.create('StringArrayArray')
b = client.factory.create('StringArray')
b.value = ['node01:80',]
a.value = [b,]
client.service.addDrainingNodes(['my pool'], a)

But I get the following error:

suds.WebFault: Server raised fault: ‘Not an ARRAY reference at /usr/local/zeus/zxtmadmin/lib/perl/Zeus/ZXTM/SOAPBase.pm line 772.

Extract of the schema definition:

    <types>
        <xsd:schema targetNamespace='http://soap.zeus.com/zxtm/1.0/'
            xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
            xmlns:SOAP-ENC='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/'
            xmlns:wsdl='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/'>

            <xsd:complexType name="StringArray">
                <xsd:complexContent>
                    <xsd:restriction base='SOAP-ENC:Array'>
                        <xsd:attribute ref='SOAP-ENC:arrayType' wsdl:arrayType='xsd:string[]'/>
                    </xsd:restriction>
                </xsd:complexContent>
            </xsd:complexType>

            <xsd:complexType name="StringArrayArray">
                <xsd:complexContent>
                    <xsd:restriction base='SOAP-ENC:Array'>
                        <xsd:attribute ref='SOAP-ENC:arrayType' wsdl:arrayType='zeusns:StringArray[]'/>
                    </xsd:restriction>
                </xsd:complexContent>
            </xsd:complexType>
        </xsd:schema>
    </types>

    <message name="addDrainingNodesRequest">
        <part name="names" type="zeusns:StringArray" />
        <part name="values" type="zeusns:StringArrayArray" />
    </message>

    <message name="addDrainingNodesResponse"></message>

    <portType name="PoolPort">

        <operation name="addDrainingNodes">
            <documentation>
                Add nodes to the lists of draining nodes, for each of the named pools.
            </documentation>

            <input message="zeusns:addDrainingNodesRequest"/>
            <output message="zeusns:addDrainingNodesResponse"/>
        </operation>
    </portType>
</definitions>

I also tried like this:
client.service.addDrainingNodes([‘my pool’], [[‘node01:80’]])
which worked in SOAPpy but now in suds I get:

suds.WebFault: Server raised fault: ‘Value isn’t an array’

Comparison between what SOAPpy and what suds sends:

SOAPpy (works):

<ns1:addDrainingNodes xmlns:ns1="http://soap.zeus.com/zxtm/1.0/Pool/" SOAP-ENC:root="1">
    <v1 SOAP-ENC:arrayType="xsd:string[1]" xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array">
        <item>my pool</item>
    </v1>
    <v2 SOAP-ENC:arrayType="xsd:list[1]" xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array">
        <item SOAP-ENC:arrayType="xsd:string[1]" xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array">
            <item>node01:80</item>
        </item>
    </v2>
</ns1:addDrainingNodes>

suds (doesn’t work):

<ns4:addDrainingNodes>
    <names xsi:type="ns0:StringArray" ns3:arrayType="ns2:string[1]">
        <item xsi:type="ns2:string">my pool</item>
    </names>
    <values xsi:type="ns0:StringArrayArray" ns3:arrayType="ns0:StringArray[1]">
        <item xsi:type="ns2:string">node01:80</item>
    </values>
</ns4:addDrainingNodes>

Context:

• I’m new to suds and Soap
• there’s only the SOAP interface to the ZXTM loadbalancer
• using python2.6 and suds 0.3.9
• we used to use ZSI’s SOAPpy, but had issues using it under python 2.6

Edit: Added suds/SOAPpy payloads

Answer 1

After trying

• zillions of different arguments to this function
• wsdl2py from ZSI

I found out that suds 4.0 offers plugins, that solves this case by hacking, but nonetheless I think that’s a suds bug:

class FixArrayPlugin(Plugin):
    def sending(self, context):
        command = context.envelope.getChild('Body').getChildren()[0].name
        if command == 'addDrainingNodes':
            context.envelope.addPrefix('xsd', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema')
            values = context.envelope.getChild('Body').getChild('addDrainingNodes').getChild('values')
            values.set('SOAP-ENC:arrayType', 'xsd:list[1]')
            values.set('xsi:type', 'SOAP-ENC:Array')
            item = values[0]
            item.set('SOAP-ENC:arrayType', 'xsd:list[1]')
            item.set('xsi:type', 'SOAP-ENC:Array')

client = Client(wsdl, location=location, plugins=[FixArrayPlugin()])
a = client.factory.create('StringArrayArray')
b = client.factory.create('StringArray')
b.item = ['node01:80']
a.item = [b,]
client.service.addDrainingNodes(['my pool'], a)

I’m looking forward for this issue to be fixed, IMO this should be a one liner
I’m leaving this open as I’m still interested in better alternatives