Scope of this article is to describe how to make a SOAP call to an instance using the CURL command. This will help troubleshooting customer related issues when using the SOAP API.

Procedure

Soap Request Flow

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:inc="http://www.service-now.com/incident">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <inc:get>
         <sys_id><enter_sys_ID_of_record_to_retrieve</sys_id>
         </inc:get>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Create the CURL command that you will input in the terminal.

curl --username:password --header "Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8" --header "SOAPAction: ACTION_YOU_WANT_TO_CALL" --data @FILE_NAME URL_OF_THE_SOAP_WEB_SERVICE_ENDPOINT

Example 1: If you are consuming the WSDL from an Instance

curl --user xyz:abc123 --header "Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8" --header "SOAPAction:Get" --data @test.xml https://<instance_name>.service-now.com/incident.do?SOAP 

Example 2: If you are consuming the WSDL from a Node

curl --user xyz:abc123 --header "Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8" --header "SOAPAction:Get" --data @test.xml https://<noce_name>.service-now.com:<Port_Number>/incident.do?SOAP 

Step 3: 

Execute the command in Terminal or command prompt.

Troubleshooting:

If ever you see that you are not receiving the expected output, then add the verbose parameter to the curl command and this shall give you more information.

Example of the curl command with verbose:

curl --user xyz:abc123 --header "Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8" --header "SOAPAction:Get" --data @test.xml https://<instance_name>.service-now.com/incident.do?SOAP -v 

 Common issue you might face:

1.The file containing the request is not readable

Error:                

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<SOAP-ENV:Header/>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<SOAP-ENV:Fault>
<faultcode>SOAP-ENV:Server</faultcode>
<faultstring>Unable to parse SOAP document</faultstring>
<detail>Error completing SOAP request</detail>
</SOAP-ENV:Fault>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Solution: Check the content and format of the file that contains the SOAP Request 

2. The credential of the specified user is wrong or user is not authorized to access the WSDL

Error:

...
...
< HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
< Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=5C48D05E518DC37DA6502440F2FD8361; Path=/; HttpOnly;Secure
* Authentication problem. Ignoring this.
...
...

Solution : Check the user credential and if there is any ACL blocking the user from accessing the record

3. The WSDL is incorrect/wrong

* Could not resolve host: <URL_OF_THE_SOAP_WEB_SERVICE_ENDPOINT>
* Closing connection 0
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: URL_OF_THE_SOAP_WEB_SERVICE_ENDPOINT

• SOAP Messages
• SOAP Roles
• SOAP Message Function
• SOAP Default Security Policy