NAME

       SOAP::Constants - SOAP::Lite provides several variables to allows programmers and users to modify the
       behavior of SOAP::Lite in specific ways.

DESCRIPTION

       A number of "constant" values are provided by means of this namespace. The values aren't constants in the
       strictest sense; the purpose of the values detailed here is to allow the application to change them if it
       desires to alter the specific behavior governed.

CONSTANTS

   $DO_NOT_USE_XML_PARSER
       The SOAP::Lite package attempts to locate and use the XML::Parser package, falling back on an internal,
       pure-Perl parser in its absence. This package is a fast parser, based on the Expat parser developed by
       James Clark. If the application sets this value to 1, there will be no attempt to locate or use
       XML::Parser. There are several reasons you might choose to do this. If the package will never be made
       available, there is no reason to perform the test. Setting this parameter is less time-consuming than the
       test for the package would be. Also, the XML::Parser code links against the Expat libraries for the C
       language. In some environments, this could cause a problem when mixed with other applications that may be
       linked against a different version of the same libraries. This was once the case with certain
       combinations of Apache, mod_perl and XML::Parser.

   $DO_NOT_USE_CHARSET
       Unless this parameter is set to 1, outgoing Content-Type headers will include specification of the
       character set used in encoding the message itself. Not all endpoints (client or server) may be able to
       properly deal with that data on the content header, however. If dealing with an endpoint that expects to
       do a more literal examination of the header as whole (as opposed to fully parsing it), this parameter may
       prove useful.

   $DO_NOT_CHECK_CONTENT_TYPE
       The content-type itself for a SOAP message is rather clearly defined, and in most cases, an application
       would have no reason to disable the testing of that header. This having been said, the content-type for
       SOAP 1.2 is still only a recommended draft, and badly coded endpoints might send valid messages with
       invalid Content-Type headers. While the "right" thing to do would be to reject such messages, that isn't
       always an option. Setting this parameter to 1 allows the toolkit to skip the content-type test.

   $PATCH_HTTP_KEEPALIVE
       SOAP::Lite's HTTP Transport module attempts to provide a simple patch to LWP::Protocol to enable HTTP
       Keep Alive. By default, this patch is turned off, if however you would like to turn on the experimental
       patch change the constant like so:

         $SOAP::Constants::PATCH_HTTP_KEEPALIVE = 1;

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Special thanks to O'Reilly publishing which has graciously allowed SOAP::Lite to republish and
       redistribute large excerpts from Programming Web Services with Perl, mainly the SOAP::Lite reference
       found in Appendix B.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Paul Kulchenko. All rights reserved.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself.

AUTHORS

       Paul Kulchenko (paulclinger@yahoo.com)

       Randy J. Ray (rjray@blackperl.com)

       Byrne Reese (byrne@majordojo.com)