Collection of XML requests and responses from AutoTasks SOAP API

client.rb

=begin
======

example Savon client for connecting to AutoTask's SOAP API

- install savon via `gem install savon`
- ensure AUTOTASK_USERNAME and AUTOTASK_PASSWORD environment variables are set

=====
=end

require 'rubygems'
require 'savon'

AUTOTASK_WSDL     = 'https://webservices2.autotask.net/atservices/1.5/atws.wsdl'
AUTOTASK_USERNAME = ENV['AUTOTASK_USERNAME']
AUTOTASK_PASSWORD = ENV['AUTOTASK_PASSWORD']

def autotask_client
  @autotask_client ||= Savon::Client.new(
    :wsdl         => AUTOTASK_WSDL,
    :basic_auth   => [
      AUTOTASK_USERNAME,
      AUTOTASK_PASSWORD,
    ],
    :raise_errors => false,
    :log_level    => :debug,
    :log          => true,
  )
end

###
# returns 200, expected response body
#
autotask_client.call(:get_zone_info, :message => {
  'UserName' => AUTOTASK_USERNAME,
})

##
# returns 200, expected response body
#
autotask_client.call(:get_entity_info, :message => {
  'UserName' => AUTOTASK_USERNAME,
})

##
# empty queryxml, should return 400 (or similar) with errors
# returns 200, error in response body
#
# <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
# <EntityResults /><EntityResultType />
# <Errors>
# <ATWSError><Message>Root element is missing.</Message></ATWSError>
# <ATWSError><Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message></ATWSError>
# </Errors>
# <EntityReturnInfoResults />

autotask_client.call(:query, :message => {
  'sXML' => {
    :queryxml => {}
  }
})

##
# contains valid queryxml, should return 200 and entities
# doesn't work, returns 400
#
# empty response body
#
autotask_client.call(:query, :message => {
  'sXML' => {
    :queryxml => {
      :entity => 'Contact',
      :query! => '<condition><field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field></condition>', # use ! to prevent escaping of internal fields
    }
  }
})

create_notes.xml

# Testing the create method to create account notes.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <create xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <Entities>
                <Entity type="AccountNote">
                    <AccountID>29683561</AccountID>
                    <AssignedResourceID>29684288</AssignedResourceID>
                    <ActionType>4</ActionType>
                    <StartDateTime>2013-07-08 05:48:55</StartDateTime>
                    <EndDateTime>2013-07-15 05:48:55</EndDateTime>
                    <Name>Note 1</Name>
                    <Note>This is the first note.</Note>
                </Entity>
                <Entity type="AccountNote">
                    <AccountID>29683561</AccountID>
                    <AssignedResourceID>29684288</AssignedResourceID>
                    <ActionType>4</ActionType>
                    <StartDateTime>2013-07-08 05:48:55</StartDateTime>
                    <EndDateTime>2013-07-15 05:48:55</EndDateTime>
                    <Name>Note 2</Name>
                    <Note>This is the second note.</Note>
                </Entity>
                <Entity type="AccountNote">
                    <AccountID>29683561</AccountID>
                    <AssignedResourceID>29684288</AssignedResourceID>
                    <ActionType>4</ActionType>
                    <StartDateTime>2013-07-08 05:48:55</StartDateTime>
                    <EndDateTime>2013-07-15 05:48:55</EndDateTime>
                    <Name>Note 3</Name>
                    <Note>This is the last note.</Note>
                </Entity>
            </Entities>
        </create>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <soap:Fault>
            <faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode>
            <faultstring>System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to read request. ---&gt; System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (4, 63). ---&gt; System.InvalidOperationException: The specified type is abstract: name='Entity', namespace='http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/', at &lt;Entity xmlns='http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/'&gt;.
   at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReader1.Read5_Entity(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
   at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReader1.Read132_create()
   at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.ArrayOfObjectSerializer92.Deserialize(XmlSerializationReader reader)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.ReadParameters()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.ReadParameters()
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebServiceHandler.CoreProcessRequest()</faultstring>
            <detail />
        </soap:Fault>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

create_with_raw_request.xml

  # Testing the creation of entities using raw soap request

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <soap:Body>
        <create xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <Entities>
                <Entity xsi:type="AccountNote">
                    <AccountID>29683561</AccountID>
                    <ActionType>3</ActionType>
                    <AssignedResourceID>29684288</AssignedResourceID>
                    <EndDateTime>2013-07-15 05:48:55</EndDateTime>
                    <Name>Note 2</Name>
                    <Note>This is the second note.</Note>
                    <StartDateTime>2013-07-08 05:48:55</StartDateTime>
                </Entity>
            </Entities>
        </create>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

----------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

example_query.xml

# Example from https://webservices2.autotask.net/atservices/1.5/atws.asmx?op=query
# I assume the contents of the `sXML` attribute are the `queryxml`

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap12:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
    <soap12:Header>
        <AutotaskIntegrations xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <PartnerID>string</PartnerID>
        </AutotaskIntegrations>
    </soap12:Header>
    <soap12:Body>
        <query xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <sXML>string</sXML>
        </query>
    </soap12:Body>
</soap12:Envelope>

get_entity_info.xml

# Correctly runs GetEntityInfo and returns a list of entities

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:GetEntityInfo></tns:GetEntityInfo>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

get_zone_info.xml

# Correctly returns the appropriate zone to use

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:getZoneInfo>
            <tns:UserName>cheartbeat@ClientHeartbeatDemo.com</tns:UserName>
        </tns:getZoneInfo>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

query.xml

# Responds with HTTP 400, empty body

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:query>
            <tns:sXML>
                <tns:queryxml>
                    <tns:entity>Contact</tns:entity>
                    <tns:query>
                        <field>id
                            <expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                    </tns:query>
                </tns:queryxml>
            </tns:sXML>
        </tns:query>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

query_using_condition_additional.xml

# Experimenting with the XML structure yields no gains.
# Without `sXML`

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:query>
            <queryxml>
                <entity>Contact</entity>
                <query>
                    <condition>
                        <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                    </condition>
                </query>
            </queryxml>
        </tns:query>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

-----

# Without `queryxml`

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <sXML>
            <queryxml>
                <entity>Contact</entity>
                <query>
                    <condition>
                        <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                    </condition>
                </query>
            </queryxml>
        </sXML>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

query_using_condition_per_documentation.xml

# Properly formed, and as per the documentation.
# Also fails.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:query>
            <sXML>
                <queryxml>
                    <entity>Contact</entity>
                    <query>
                        <condition>
                            <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                        </condition>
                    </query>
                </queryxml>
            </sXML>
        </tns:query>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

query_using_condition_properly_formed.xml

# A properly formed request, with the `queryxml` as the body.
# This also fails as expected, the API document specified the `queryxml` should be contained within `query` and `sXML`

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <queryxml>
            <entity>Contact</entity>
            <query>
                <condition>
                    <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                </condition>
            </query>
        </queryxml>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

query_using_condition_raw.xml

# As expected, using `queryxml` as the request fails with SOAP error.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<queryxml>
    <entity>Contact</entity>
    <query>
        <condition>
            <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
        </condition>
    </query>
</queryxml>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Header>
        <soap12:Upgrade xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
            <soap12:SupportedEnvelope qname="soap:Envelope" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" />
            <soap12:SupportedEnvelope qname="soap12:Envelope" xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" />
        </soap12:Upgrade>
    </soap:Header>
    <soap:Body>
        <soap:Fault>
            <faultcode>soap:VersionMismatch</faultcode>
            <faultstring>
                System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Possible SOAP version mismatch: Envelope namespace  was unexpected. Expecting http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/.
                    at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.CheckHelperVersion()
                    at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.ReadParameters()
                    at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebServiceHandler.CoreProcessRequest()
            </faultstring>
            <detail />
        </soap:Fault>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

query_with_cdata.xml

# Testing with use of CDATA ( http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5227333/xml-soap-post-error-what-am-i-doing-wrong/7628604#7628604 )
# All these SOAP requests are well formed according to the API documentation, not sure why it can't find the entity / queryxml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:query>
            <sXML>
                <![CDATA[<queryxml>
                    <entity>Contact</entity>
                    <query>
                        <field>id<expression op="greaterthan">0</expression></field>
                    </query>
                </queryxml>]]>
            </sXML>
        </tns:query>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

-----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <queryResponse xmlns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/">
            <queryResult>
                <ReturnCode>-1</ReturnCode>
                <EntityResults />
                <EntityResultType />
                <Errors>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                    <ATWSError>
                        <Message>Error reading in Query XML.</Message>
                    </ATWSError>
                </Errors>
                <EntityReturnInfoResults />
            </queryResult>
        </queryResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Very glad I bumped into this reference...doing some work with their API via Rails as well, and the documentation is considerably lacking. Glad you posted your findings.

I still can't get past this error :(

Excellent work, many thanks!!!

I spent an inordinate amount of time getting this to work so I thought I'd post my results.

First, I learned it made a difference which web service end point I used. For some reason I was getting "Unhandled Exception" HTTP 500 errors when accessing https://webservices3.autotask.net/ATServices/1.5/atws.asmx but the same query and user/password works with https://webservices5.autotask.net/ATServices/1.5/atws.asmx.

I used SOAPUI to run the below query. Note you need to specify your AutoTask username/password in the HTTP Basic Auth portion of SOAPUI (I had tried to use the SOAP Header to make it work).

<env:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tns="http://autotask.net/ATWS/v1_5/" xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <env:Body>
        <tns:query>
            <tns:sXML>
            <![CDATA[
            <queryxml>
              <entity>Contact</entity>
              <query>
                <field>id
                 <expression op="equals">13500304</expression></field>
              </query>
            </queryxml>
            ]]>
            </tns:sXML>
        </tns:query>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

Thank you all and @aaronbartell ! That query works for ticket IDs as well.

Using this CDATA and xmlns, how would you structure a create request. To create a TicketNote?