repo_zf1/documentation/manual/en/module_specs/Zend_Service_StrikeIron-Overview.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Reviewed: no -->
<sect1 id="zend.service.strikeiron">
    <title>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</title>

    <para>
        <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname> provides a <acronym>PHP</acronym> 5 client to
        StrikeIron web services. See the following sections:
    </para>

    <para>
        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem><para><xref linkend="zend.service.strikeiron" /></para></listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
                <para><xref linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services" /></para>
            </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
                <para><xref linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.advanced-uses" /></para>
            </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
    </para>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.overview">
        <title>Overview</title>

        <para>
            <ulink url="http://www.strikeiron.com">StrikeIron</ulink>
            offers hundreds of commercial data services ("Data as a Service")
            such as Online Sales Tax, Currency Rates, Stock Quotes, Geocodes, Global
            Address Verification, Yellow/White Pages, MapQuest Driving Directions,
            Dun &amp; Bradstreet Business Credit Checks, and much, much more.
        </para>

        <para>
            Each StrikeIron web service shares a standard <acronym>SOAP</acronym> (and REST)
            <acronym>API</acronym>, making it easy to integrate and manage multiple services.
            StrikeIron also manages customer billing for all services in a single
            account, making it perfect for solution providers. Get
            started with free web services at
            <ulink url="http://www.strikeiron.com/sdp">http://www.strikeiron.com/sdp</ulink>.
        </para>

        <para>
            StrikeIron's services may be used through the
            <ulink url="http://us.php.net/soap">PHP 5 <acronym>SOAP</acronym> extension</ulink>
            alone. However, using StrikeIron this way does not give an ideal
            <acronym>PHP</acronym>-like interface. The
            <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname> component provides a lightweight layer on
            top of the <acronym>SOAP</acronym> extension for working with StrikeIron services in a
            more convenient, <acronym>PHP</acronym>-like manner.
        </para>

        <note>
            <para>
                The <acronym>PHP</acronym> 5 <acronym>SOAP</acronym> extension must be installed and
                enabled to use <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname>.
            </para>
        </note>

        <para>
            The <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname> component provides:

            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        A single point for configuring your StrikeIron authentication credentials
                        that can be used across many StrikeIron services.
                    </para>
                </listitem>

                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        A standard way of retrieving your StrikeIron subscription information
                        such as license status and the number of hits remaining to a service.
                    </para>
                </listitem>

                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        The ability to use any StrikeIron service from its WSDL without
                        creating a <acronym>PHP</acronym> wrapper class, and the option of creating
                        a wrapper for a more convenient interface.
                    </para>
                </listitem>

                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Wrappers for three popular StrikeIron services.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
        </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.registering">
        <title>Registering with StrikeIron</title>

        <para>
            Before you can get started with <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname>, you must
            first <ulink url="http://strikeiron.com/Register.aspx">register</ulink> for a
            StrikeIron developer account.
        </para>

        <para>
            After registering, you will receive a StrikeIron username and password.
            These will be used when connecting to StrikeIron using
            <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname>.
        </para>

        <para>
            You will also need to <ulink
                url="http://www.strikeiron.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=257">sign up</ulink>
            for StrikeIron's Super Data Pack Web Service.
        </para>

        <para>
            Both registration steps are free and can be done relatively quickly through
            the StrikeIron website.
        </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.getting-started">
        <title>Getting Started</title>

        <para>
            Once you have <ulink url="http://strikeiron.com/Register.aspx">registered</ulink>
            for a StrikeIron account and signed up for the
            <ulink url="http://www.strikeiron.com/ProductDetail.aspx?p=257">Super Data Pack</ulink>,
            you're ready to start using <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname>.
        </para>

        <para>
            StrikeIron consists of hundreds of different web services.
            <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname> can be used with many of these services
            but provides supported wrappers for three of them:
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <link
                        linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services.zip-code-information">ZIP
                        Code Information</link>
                </para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <link
                        linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services.us-address-verification">US
                        Address Verification</link>
                </para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <link
                        linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services.sales-use-tax-basic">Sales
                        &amp; Use Tax Basic</link>
                </para>
            </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

        <para>
            The class <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron</classname> provides a simple way
            of specifying your StrikeIron account information and other options in
            its constructor. It also has a factory method that will return clients
            for StrikeIron services:

            <programlisting language="php"><![CDATA[
$strikeIron = new Zend_Service_StrikeIron(array('username' => 'your-username',
                                                'password' => 'your-password'));

$taxBasic = $strikeIron->getService(array('class' => 'SalesUseTaxBasic'));
]]></programlisting>
        </para>

        <para>
            The <methodname>getService()</methodname> method will return a client for any
            StrikeIron service by the name of its <acronym>PHP</acronym> wrapper class. In this
            case, the name <code>SalesUseTaxBasic</code> refers to the wrapper class
            <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron_SalesUseTaxBasic</classname>. Wrappers are
            included for three services and described in
            <link linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services">Bundled Services</link>.
        </para>

        <para>
            The <methodname>getService()</methodname> method can also return a client for
            a StrikeIron service that does not yet have a <acronym>PHP</acronym> wrapper. This is
            explained in
            <link linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.advanced-uses.services-by-wsdl">Using Services by
                WSDL</link>.
        </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.making-first-query">
        <title>Making Your First Query</title>

        <para>
            Once you have used the <methodname>getService()</methodname> method to get a client
            for a particular StrikeIron service, you can utilize that client
            by calling methods on it just like any other PHP object.

            <programlisting language="php"><![CDATA[
$strikeIron = new Zend_Service_StrikeIron(array('username' => 'your-username',
                                                'password' => 'your-password'));

// Get a client for the Sales & Use Tax Basic service
$taxBasic = $strikeIron->getService(array('class' => 'SalesUseTaxBasic'));

// Query tax rate for Ontario, Canada
$rateInfo = $taxBasic->getTaxRateCanada(array('province' => 'ontario'));
echo $rateInfo->province;
echo $rateInfo->abbreviation;
echo $rateInfo->GST;
]]></programlisting>

            In the example above, the <methodname>getService()</methodname> method is used
            to return a client to the <link
                linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services.sales-use-tax-basic">Sales &amp;
                Use Tax Basic</link> service. The client object is stored in
            <varname>$taxBasic</varname>.
        </para>

        <para>
            The <methodname>getTaxRateCanada()</methodname> method is then called on the
            service. An associative array is used to supply keyword parameters to
            the method. This is the way that all StrikeIron methods are called.
        </para>

        <para>
            The result from <methodname>getTaxRateCanada()</methodname> is stored in
            <varname>$rateInfo</varname> and has properties like <code>province</code>
            and <constant>GST</constant>.
        </para>

        <para>
            Many of the StrikeIron services are as simple to use as the example above. See
            <link linkend="zend.service.strikeiron.bundled-services">Bundled Services</link>
            for detailed information on three StrikeIron services.
        </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.examining-results">
        <title>Examining Results</title>

        <para>
            When learning or debugging the StrikeIron services, it's often useful to dump the
            result returned from a method call. The result will always be an object that is an
            instance of <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron_Decorator</classname>. This is a
            small <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decorator_pattern">decorator</ulink>
            object that wraps the results from the method call.
        </para>

        <para>
            The simplest way to examine a result from the service is to use the built-in
            PHP functions like <ulink url="http://www.php.net/print_r">print_r()</ulink>:

            <programlisting language="php"><![CDATA[
<?php
$strikeIron = new Zend_Service_StrikeIron(array('username' => 'your-username',
                                                'password' => 'your-password'));

$taxBasic = $strikeIron->getService(array('class' => 'SalesUseTaxBasic'));

$rateInfo = $taxBasic->getTaxRateCanada(array('province' => 'ontario'));
print_r($rateInfo);
?>

Zend_Service_StrikeIron_Decorator Object
(
    [_name:protected] => GetTaxRateCanadaResult
    [_object:protected] => stdClass Object
        (
            [abbreviation] => ON
            [province] => ONTARIO
            [GST] => 0.06
            [PST] => 0.08
            [total] => 0.14
            [HST] => Y
        )
)
]]></programlisting>
        </para>

        <para>
            In the output above, we see that the decorator (<varname>$rateInfo</varname>) wraps an
            object named <code>GetTaxRateCanadaResult</code>, the result of the call to
            <methodname>getTaxRateCanada()</methodname>.
        </para>

        <para>
            This means that <varname>$rateInfo</varname> has public properties like
            <code>abbreviation</code>, <code>province</code>, and <constant>GST</constant>. These
            are accessed like <code>$rateInfo->province</code>.
        </para>

        <tip>
            <para>
                StrikeIron result properties sometimes start with an uppercase letter such as
                <code>Foo</code> or <code>Bar</code> where most <acronym>PHP</acronym> object
                properties normally start with a lowercase letter as in <code>foo</code> or
                <code>bar</code>. The decorator will automatically do this inflection so you
                may read a property <code>Foo</code> as <code>foo</code>.
            </para>
        </tip>

        <para>
            If you ever need to get the original object or its name out of the decorator, use the
            respective methods <methodname>getDecoratedObject()</methodname> and
            <methodname>getDecoratedObjectName()</methodname>.
        </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.handling-errors">
        <title>Handling Errors</title>

        <para>
            The previous examples are naive, i.e. no error handling was shown.
            It's possible that StrikeIron will return a fault during a method
            call. Events like bad account credentials or an expired subscription
            can cause StrikeIron to raise a fault.
        </para>

        <para>
            An exception will be thrown when such a fault occurs. You should
            anticipate and catch these exceptions when making method calls to the
            service:

            <programlisting language="php"><![CDATA[
$strikeIron = new Zend_Service_StrikeIron(array('username' => 'your-username',
                                                'password' => 'your-password'));

$taxBasic = $strikeIron->getService(array('class' => 'SalesUseTaxBasic'));

try {

  $taxBasic->getTaxRateCanada(array('province' => 'ontario'));

} catch (Zend_Service_StrikeIron_Exception $e) {

  // error handling for events like connection
  // problems or subscription errors

}
]]></programlisting>

            The exceptions thrown will always be
            <classname>Zend_Service_StrikeIron_Exception</classname>.
        </para>

        <para>
            It's important to understand the difference between exceptions and
            normal failed method calls. Exceptions occur for
            <emphasis>exceptional</emphasis> conditions, such as
            the network going down or your subscription expiring.
            Failed method calls that are a common occurrence,
            such as <methodname>getTaxRateCanada()</methodname> not finding the
            <code>province</code> you supplied, will not result an in exception.
        </para>

        <note>
            <para>
                Every time you make a method call to a StrikeIron service, you
                should check the response object for validity and also be
                prepared to catch an exception.
            </para>
        </note>

        <para><!-- included for whitespace --></para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="zend.service.strikeiron.checking-subscription">
        <title>Checking Your Subscription</title>

        <para>
            StrikeIron provides many different services. Some of these are
            free, some are available on a trial basis, and some are pay subscription only.
            When using StrikeIron, it's important to be aware of your subscription
            status for the services you are using and check it regularly.
        </para>

        <para>
            Each StrikeIron client returned by the <code>getService</code> method
            has the ability to check the subscription status for that service using
            the <methodname>getSubscriptionInfo()</methodname> method of the client:

            <programlisting language="php"><![CDATA[
// Get a client for the Sales & Use Tax Basic service
$strikeIron = new Zend_Service_StrikeIron(array('username' => 'your-username',
                                                'password' => 'your-password'));

$taxBasic = $strikeIron->getService(array('class => 'SalesUseTaxBasic'));

// Check remaining hits for the Sales & Use Tax Basic service
$subscription = $taxBasic->getSubscriptionInfo();
echo $subscription->remainingHits;
]]></programlisting>
        </para>

        <para>
            The <methodname>getSubscriptionInfo()</methodname> method will return an object
            that typically has a <code>remainingHits</code> property. It's
            important to check the status on each service that you are using. If
            a method call is made to StrikeIron after the remaining hits have been
            used up, an exception will occur.
        </para>

        <para>
            Checking your subscription to a service does not use any remaining
            hits to the service. Each time any method call to the service is made,
            the number of hits remaining will be cached and this cached value will
            be returned by <methodname>getSubscriptionInfo()</methodname> without connecting
            to the service again. To force <methodname>getSubscriptionInfo()</methodname>
            to override its cache and query the subscription information again, use
            <methodname>getSubscriptionInfo(true)</methodname>.
        </para>
    </sect2>
</sect1>