Just saying 🙄

"We use WSDL and SOAP to provide data APIs"
- Old-fashioned but ok, gimme the service def file
(The WSDL services definition file describes like 20 services)
- Cool, I see several services. In need those X data entities.
"Those will all be available through the Data service endpoint"
- What you mean "all entities in the same endpoint"? It is a WSDL, the whole point is having self-documented APIs for each entity format!
"No, you have a parameter to set the name of the data entity you want, and each entity will have its own format when the service return it"
- WTF you need the WSDL for if you will have a single service for everything?!?
"It is the way we have always done things"

Certain companies are some outdated-ass backwater tech wannabees.
Usually those that have dominated the market of an entire country since the fucking Perestroika.

The moment I turn on the data pipeline, those fuckers are gonna be overloaded into oblivion. I brought popcorn.

Well, for starters there was a cron to restart the webserver every morning.

The product was 10+ years old and written in PHP 5.3 at the time.

Another cron was running every 15 minutes, to "correct" data in the DB. Just regular data, not from an import or something.
Gotta have one of those self-healing systems I guess.

Yet another cron (there where lots) did run everyday from 02:00 to 4ish to generate the newest xlsx report. Almost took out the entire thing every time. MySQL 100%. CPU? Yes. RAM? You bet.

Lucky I wasn't too much involved at the time. But man, that thing was the definition of legacy.

Fun fact: every request was performed twice! First request gave the already logged-in client an unique access-token. Second request then processed the request with the (just issued) access-token; which was then discarded. Security I guess.

I don't know why it was build this way. It just was. I didn't ask. I didn't wanted to know. Some things are better left undisturbed. Just don't anger the machine. I became superstitious for a while. I think, in the end, it help a bit: It feels like communicating with an alien monster but all you have is a trumpet and chewing gum. Gentle does it.

Oh and "Sencha Extjs 3" almost gave me PTSD lol (it's an ancient JS framework). Followed by SOAPs WSDL cache. And a million other things.

boss: I sent you a wsdl file.

me: I saw it. But you sent me a json for a rest api request.

boss: You want me to teach you what a wsdl is?

I fucking hate SOAP.

When the only "api" documentation you have is a wsdl file...

*Releases software for State project comprising of a solution with 3 WinServices and 2 WCF Services*

*Literally 15 min after release*

Email from State: "Here is an updated wsdl schema that is going literally fuck up everything you have released, enjoy!"

Me: *starts convulsing*

I made Skype Bot which queries the data using wsdl authentication on our ticketing tool and send the data whoever has requested in skype itself(without logging or touching the ticketing tool).

Manager: Is that even possible?

Me: (In excitement) Everything is possible if you have the will.

Now, He wants me to work on his pet project. I dont know how to react!

Boss: so we've got to call an app to verify data in this project. But I've got no more info and I'm on holiday next week. Please contact GuyA next week.
Me: ok I guess?
*writes email to GuyA*
GuyB: GuyA is on holiday please hold the line
*1 week later*
GuyA: we need more time it's not ready yet
*2 weeks later?
Me: so?
GuyA: yeah it's ready here's the wsdl etc your client already has the password
*1 week later*
Me: yeah so I got the data but the api says my auth isn't working
GuyB: yeah your user isn't activated on the test system. I'm gonna forward that and come back at you
*1 week later*
GuyA: so we're going live in about 2 weeks hows testing going?
Me: well I'm still waiting for the response and activation
*suddenly it works*
Me: yeah so auth is working but i can't find any data. Is there any special test data?
GuyA: oh no there is NO test data on the test system. You need to wait for GuyB but he us not here today...
Me: are you fking kidding Me?????

... no response since then and it's been days....

Had to work with a SOAP API that was described by its WSDL to have a property called "ShoppingCart". Wasted two days trying to figure out what's wrong. The customer sent a screenshot of their backends input mask. It was then that I noticed that the corresponding label read "ShopppingCart". Yes, that's what the property was actually named.

Working with a SOAP endpoint. I know it is some .NET server due to the style of stacktrace on exceptions. Nice, a framework where I can expect some type safety granted by static types. I build some xsl to transform the SOAP wsdl files into classes and structs to interact with the endpoint. Works out perfectly.

Plottwist!

Elements which are defined in the xsd/wsdl with maxOccur=unbounded and minOccur=0 should represent a simple collection of this type. Therefore does my implementation expect a collection of this type. But no. The shipped SOAP client in my stack ignores the definition and simply deserializes the SOAP response into T and not a collection of T.

Where the duck are the types when they are defined all over the place?

Him: "I'm updating a site and I'm trying to find the REST endpoints you put out to replace the SOAP services"

Me: "Send me a list of endpoints it's using and I'll tell you what the new ones are"

Him: "Here's a list of the endpoints. The ones I've found are in bold"

Me: "Here's the new list."

Him: "Why did you only fill out the ones I'm not using?"

So, FML, he sent me a list of everything in the WSDL and bolded the ones he "found" in his code. And I'm the asshole for getting frustrated that he wasted 30 minutes of my time.

WSDL generator

Dah. Have to integrate with a legacy, crappy, SOAP service with malformed WSDL and bugger all documentation.

SOAP should just be damn well illegal these days.

Ah there's nothing quite like tightly coupling all of your exposed webservices with their class names. Especially when you name your service classes ThisIsAWeb, just so that it looks like "ThisIsAWebService" in the wsdl when "Service" is automatically added to the end

Sharing WSDL documents with the outsourced team multiple times through the course of a project leading me to Google mental health services in their location.

After a year of this I'd willing to try electro shock therapy if it gave them peace from what I can only imagine is a confused nightmare of forgetfulness.

lol so I got a new oldish laptop (so it doesn't break the bank) for my upcoming trip where I focus on working on my own project.

Didn't want to splurge since I have another laptop that I regularly use. just didn't want to take through customs since it's 8 years old.

Already used up half of the storage (128/256gb) from installing rider and wsdl lol.

thinking maybe I need to actually return it and get a more powerful machine o.o they are so expensive though