Inconsistent handling when passing potential arrays.

Bug #36226	Inconsistent handling when passing potential arrays.
Submitted:	2006-01-31 13:24 UTC	Modified:	2007-03-20 07:52 UTC
From:	say_ten at multiplay dot co dot uk	Assigned:	dmitry (profile)
Status:	Closed	Package:	SOAP related
PHP Version:	5.1.2	OS:	FreeBSD 6.0-p4
Private report:	No	CVE-ID:	None

[2006-01-31 13:24 UTC] say_ten at multiplay dot co dot uk

Description:
------------
When using the following WSDL reponse the server is allowed to return 0 to many recipes.

<xsd:complexType name="getRecipesResponse_t">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:element name="recipes" type="types:Recipe" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
    </xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>

The code returned from the function would be of the type:

array( array( "id" => 3, "recipe" => cake, "description" => "desc" ) );

If their is only 1 recipe the client returns a standard object of the recipe.  If there's more than one, the client returns an array of recipes.  This inconsitency results in code to detect and wrap the std class into an array for compatibility with the following code, foreach() for example.  This is also true when passing arrays of arrays to the SOAP server.

Expected result:
----------------
I would expect the single element arrays passed in to remain single element arrays at the other end.

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[2006-02-02 12:42 UTC] dmitry@php.net

This is not a bug but feature.
I stayed the default behavior unchanged, but added ability to create arrays even if only one element exists.
To create arrays with single element, you should use special option in SoapServer/SoapClient constructor.

$x = new SoapClient($wsdl, array('features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS));

Fixed in CVS HEAD and PHP_5_1.

[2007-02-08 15:32 UTC] lsmith@php.net

Enabling this feature seems to result in giving me an array(null) if I have a nill'ed sequence. Not sure if this is why you originally introduced the feature of not returning single element sequences as array's, but I was hoping to get an empty array in the above case.

[2007-02-15 15:47 UTC] dmitry@php.net

Could you please provide a working example with expected output. I cannot imagine the situation when ext/soap will return array(null) for unexisting XML elements.

[2007-02-23 01:00 UTC] php-bugs at lists dot php dot net

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a week, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".

[2012-04-16 09:54 UTC] a at b dot com

@dmitry: Can you explain why you consider inconsistent behaviour a feature?