ExactTarget SOAP Request returns Fault in Response

Question

This question is regarding using the ExactTarget SOAP API. I am trying to use the SOAP envelope sample given in http://help.exacttarget.com/en/technical_library/web_service_guide/technical_articles/creating_an_email_via_the_web_service_api/ I replaced the USERNAME & PASSWORD fields with appropriate values and modified the reference to http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI to the S1 endpoint link https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx. When I post the SOAP envelope using the Chrome plug-in POSTMAN, I get a response back with a Soap:Fault that reads

WSE012: The input was not a valid SOAP message because the following information is missing: action

What does this error signify and how do I correct this and proceed? I am using POSTMAN to test the flow before I code the process in nodes.js

Here is the SOAP packet (As I said earlier, the USERNAME & PASSWORD have been replaced with my credentials and reference to "http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI" has been changed to https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx. I took this SOAP Packet from the sample given on the example). I am doing the POST to https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope
    xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">   
    <SOAP-ENV:Header>
        <wsse:Security 
            xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd"
            xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
                <wsse:UsernameToken>
                    <wsse:Username>USERNAME</wsse:Username>
                    <wsse:Password Type="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordText">PASSWORD</wsse:Password>
                    <wsu:Created>2008-07-02T13:01:11Z</wsu:Created>
                </wsse:UsernameToken>
        </wsse:Security>    
    </SOAP-ENV:Header>    
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
       <CreateRequest xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
            <Options/>
            <Objects xsi:type="Email">
                <ObjectID xsi:nil="true"/>
                <Name>Text Only in API</Name>
                <Description>Description</Description>
                <TextBody>Example email body for an email that is text only</TextBody>
                <Subject>Example Subject</Subject>
                <EmailType>Text Only</EmailType>
                <IsHTMLPaste>True</IsHTMLPaste>
            </Objects>
        </CreateRequest>    
    </SOAP-ENV:Body> 
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Answer 1

POSTMAN is not sending any headers with the SOAP Packet. Try adding this to test:

POST https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx HTTP/1.1
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8
SOAPAction: "Create"
Content-Length: 1925
Host: webservice.exacttarget.com
Connection: Keep-Alive

ALSO during my testing of your packet I found that this:

<IsHTMLPaste>True</IsHTMLPaste>

Should be

<IsHTMLPaste>true</IsHTMLPaste>

Hope this helps you.

Answer 2

The action can be specified 2 different ways: in the header of the SOAP envelope or in the HTTP header.

If you want to pass it in the SOAP header, you will need to include the Action/MessageID/ReplyTo/To tags like this example:

<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" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
   <soap:Header>
      <wsa:Action>Create</wsa:Action>
      <wsa:MessageID>urn:uuid:491bf8a1-ac2b-4fe4-9f1c-56e45c9e497a</wsa:MessageID>
      <wsa:ReplyTo>
         <wsa:Address>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</wsa:Address>
      </wsa:ReplyTo>
      <wsa:To>https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx</wsa:To>
      <wsse:Security soap:mustUnderstand="1">
         <wsse:UsernameToken wsu:Id="SecurityToken-6421ac0b-a454-42a3-99f7-a77ace024446">
            <wsse:Username>ccc</wsse:Username>
            <wsse:Password Type="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordText">ccc</wsse:Password>
         </wsse:UsernameToken>
      </wsse:Security>
   </soap:Header>
   <soap:Body>
      <CreateRequest xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
         <!-- Removed for example -->
      </CreateRequest>
   </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Alternatively, it can be passed in the HTTP Header, an example working header for a Create call looks like:

POST https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx HTTP/1.1
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Content-Type: text/xml;charset=UTF-8
SOAPAction: "Create"
Content-Length: 1925
Host: webservice.exacttarget.com
Connection: Keep-Alive

I would recommend checking out SoapUI(www.soapui.org) as it makes testing SOAP envelopes a bit easier as it will automatically build out the HTTP header, also provides formatting a validation based on the WSDL.

Answer 3

I had this specific issue when trying to add a column to SFMC via the SOAP API. Same issues - Bad request when I added the standard action tag, and soap telling me I needed an action when I pasted the code from SFMC's help page verbatim. Specifically, I was trying to solve the problem of fixing it within Postman for automation purposes.

I've added this answer because I've not had any luck with adding the ReplyTo & To fields to enable an Action to be used in the Payload. The Bad Payload issue went away, but SFMC wasn't updating to show that there were new columns. I can confirm that the method below will add columns.

Bad Request

WSE012: The input was not a valid SOAP message because the following information is missing: action.

Thanks to the peeps above for the help. It looks like if you're creating a new column to an existing DE you only need to call out the action in the header:

What the help page tells you to do:

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<soapenv:Header>
    <wsse:Security soapenv:mustUnderstand="1" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd">
        <wsse:UsernameToken wsu:Id="UsernameToken-5501096" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
            <wsse:Username>XXX</wsse:Username> 
            <wsse:Password Type="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordText">XXX</wsse:Password> 
        </wsse:UsernameToken>
    </wsse:Security>
</soapenv:Header>
<soapenv:Body>
    <UpdateRequest xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
        <Options /> 
        <Objects xsi:type="ns1:DataExtension" xmlns:ns1="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
            <CustomerKey>8533EC32-5E12-4599-B279-0369EFCB38E3</CustomerKey> 
            <Fields>
                <Field>
                    <Name>New Field</Name> 
                    <MaxLength>200</MaxLength> 
                    <IsRequired>true</IsRequired> 
                </Field>
            </Fields>
        </Objects>
    </UpdateRequest>
</soapenv:Body>

What you need to add to make the call valid:

URL: https://webservice.exacttarget.com/Service.asmx

In Postman's Headers, create a the folowing Key:value

SOAPAction: Update

(You're using update because you're adding a column to an existing DE)

Body:

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <soapenv:Header>
        <fueloauth xmlns="http://exacttarget.com">{{accessToken}}</fueloauth>
    </soapenv:Header>
    <soapenv:Body>
        <UpdateRequest xmlns="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
            <Options /> 
            <Objects xsi:type="ns1:DataExtension" xmlns:ns1="http://exacttarget.com/wsdl/partnerAPI">
                <CustomerKey>EXTERNAL_KEY</CustomerKey> 
                <Fields>
                    <Field>
                        <Name>HarroSquirrel5</Name> 
                        <MaxLength>200</MaxLength> 
                        <IsRequired>false</IsRequired> 
                    </Field>
                </Fields>
            </Objects>
        </UpdateRequest>
    </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Hopefully this helps someone out there! I've been pulling my hair out all day with this sucker!