Adding custom HTTP headers to soap4r request

When you're using soap4r, you don't have access to the bare httpclient - which means you have absolutely no way of passing in custom HTTP headers (note, not SOAP headers which definitely have an API).

Monkeypatch time!

See the patchfile below. You need to a) vendor soap4r (if you haven't already), then b) update several files with the given patch.

Then you can pass in your customised headers directly via the soap driver before you call the soap method. Here's an example of use:

driver = SOAP::RPC::Driver.new(url, SCHEMA)
driver.add_method 'MySoapMethod', 'MyParam'

driver.options["protocol.http_custom_headers"] = {'MySpecialHeader1' => 'abc', 'MySpecialHeader2' => 'xyz'}
driver.MySoapMethod 'MyValue'

and here's the necessary patches (note: they're in svn-diff style):

Index: vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/proxy.rb
===================================================================
--- vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/proxy.rb (revision 4217)
+++ vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/proxy.rb (working copy)
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
   attr_accessor :allow_unqualified_element
   attr_accessor :default_encodingstyle
   attr_accessor :generate_explicit_type
+  attr_accessor :http_headers
   attr_accessor :use_default_namespace
   attr_accessor :return_response_as_xml
   attr_reader :headerhandler
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@
     @allow_unqualified_element = true
     @default_encodingstyle = nil
     @generate_explicit_type = true
+    @http_headers = nil
     @use_default_namespace = false
     @return_response_as_xml = false
     @headerhandler = Header::HandlerSet.new
@@ -135,7 +137,9 @@
 
       :generate_explicit_type => @generate_explicit_type,
       :use_default_namespace =>
-        op_info.use_default_namespace || @use_default_namespace
+        op_info.use_default_namespace || @use_default_namespace,
+      :http_headers =>  @http_headers
+
     )
     resopt = create_encoding_opt(
       :envelopenamespace => @options["soap.envelope.responsenamespace"],
@@ -168,6 +172,9 @@
     end
     reqopt[:external_content] = nil
     conn_data = marshal(req_env, reqopt)
+    if reqopt[:http_headers].present?
+      conn_data.extheaders = reqopt[:http_headers]
+    end
     if ext = reqopt[:external_content]
       mime = MIMEMessage.new
       ext.each do |k, v|
@@ -299,6 +305,7 @@
     opt[:default_encodingstyle] = @default_encodingstyle
     opt[:allow_unqualified_element] = @allow_unqualified_element
     opt[:generate_explicit_type] = @generate_explicit_type
+    opt[:http_headers] = @http_headers
     opt[:no_indent] = @options["soap.envelope.no_indent"]
     opt[:use_numeric_character_reference] =
       @options["soap.envelope.use_numeric_character_reference"]
Index: vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/driver.rb
===================================================================
--- vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/driver.rb (revision 4217)
+++ vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/rpc/driver.rb (working copy)
@@ -211,6 +211,9 @@
     opt.add_hook("protocol.generate_explicit_type") do |key, value|
       @proxy.generate_explicit_type = value
     end
+    opt.add_hook("protocol.http_custom_headers") do |key, value|
+      @proxy.http_headers = value
+    end
     opt.add_hook("protocol.use_default_namespace") do |key, value|
       @proxy.use_default_namespace = value
     end
Index: vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/streamHandler.rb
===================================================================
--- vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/streamHandler.rb (revision 4217)
+++ vendor/gems/soap4r-1.5.8/lib/soap/streamHandler.rb (working copy)
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@
     attr_accessor :is_nocontent
     attr_accessor :soapaction
 
+    attr_accessor :extheaders
+
     def initialize(send_string = nil)
       @send_string = send_string
       @send_contenttype = nil
@@ -42,6 +44,7 @@
       @is_fault = false
       @is_nocontent = false
       @soapaction = nil
+      @extheaders = nil
     end
   end
 
@@ -230,6 +233,13 @@
     extheader['Content-Type'] = conn_data.send_contenttype
     extheader['SOAPAction'] = "\"#{ conn_data.soapaction }\""
     extheader['Accept-Encoding'] = 'gzip' if send_accept_encoding_gzip?
+    # allow us to pass in custom HTTP headers
+    if conn_data.extheaders.present?
+      conn_data.extheaders.each do |key, value|
+        extheader[key] = value
+      end
+    end
+
     send_string = conn_data.send_string
     @wiredump_dev << "Wire dump:\n\n" if @wiredump_dev
     begin