Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php5-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:
 
  http://snaps.php.net/win32/php5-win32-latest.zip

I have tried the latest window version you provided a link to, it still throws an uncatchable fatal error.

The only solution I have come up with for this problem is to put the SOAP call into a seperate php file and then use it with exec().

This does however limit the input/output options available.

Assigned to the maintainer. 

Seems this bug was already fixed in CVS HEAD, PHP_5_2 and PHP_5_1 long time ago.

Have tried on PHP version 5.1.6, still getting the following error:

Fatal error: SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'http://urlhere.com/file.wsdl'.

So I still cannot catch this error, which limits my use of SOAP as it will kill my script.

See also bug #38703.

I have tried to use set_error_handler(), but as you know it cannot catch fatal errors.

Does anyone else have a workaround?

I cannot reproduce the bug even with 5.1.4. Try "php -d log_errors=0 test.php". May be you are seeing log message and don't see "Error Caught" after it?

OK, the debug information shows that the Soap client class is now throwing an uncaught SoapFault exception (which causes the fatal error).

with a try{ } catch(SoapFault $exception) I can continue the script.

I've closed the bug.

I can reproduce this error with php 5.1.4 and 5.2.0 on windows. And it seems Derick was also able to reproduce it on Linux. Using the following we get 3 warnings and a fatal error:

<?php

try {
  $client = new SoapClient('http://i_dont_exist.com/some.wsdl');
} catch (SoapFault $e) {
var_dump(get_class($e));
} catch (Exception $e) {
var_dump(get_class($e));
}
var_dump($client);

It really should not do anything but throw an exception, as this is what is defined to happen for fatal errors in constructors for all extensions.

I get 3 warning + a SoapFault exception when running Lukas' test case there. The output is:

Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /home/ek/projects/php_5_2/t on line 4

Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(http://i_dont_exist.com/some.wsdl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/ek/projects/php_5_2/t on line 4

Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://i_dont_exist.com/some.wsdl" in /home/ek/projects/php_5_2/t on line 4
string(9) "SoapFault"
NULL

I think getting 3 warning and an exception for failing to load WSDL file is a bit excessive though :)

Similar problem here with PHP 5.1.6.

try {
    $soap = new SoapClient('[...]', array('exceptions' => true)); // Note: Same results without or without exceptions => true
} catch(Exception $e) {
    var_dump($e);
}

Results in:

Warning: SoapClient::__construct([...]) [function.SoapClient---construct]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in [...]

Warning: SoapClient::__construct() [function.SoapClient---construct]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "..." in [...]

Fatal error: SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from '[...]' in [...]

In general nothing in ext/soap should be fatal if its not within the control of the local php application. This means missing WSDL, changes to the WSDL etc. All of this needs to be catchable in some way or another (exception, returning false .. etc).

Also if an exception is thrown no warnings should be thrown for the same issue.

5.2.2-dev as of today (and 5.2.1) on windows is not raising a SoapFault exception regardless of if exceptions is true or false, as stated by jhendric. However, 5.2.1 on FreeBSD 4 (installed from ports) is raising an uncaught SoapFault exception as was stated by gareth . So it appears to be platform specific. In both cases, 3 additional warnings are raised.

IIS:

Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in c:\web\test.php on line 2
Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in c:\web\test.php on line 2
Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): I/O warning : failed to load external entity "h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl" in c:\web\test.php on line 2
Fatal error: SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl' in c:\web\test.php on line 2

FreeBSD 4:

Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No address associated with hostname in /usr/home/www/test.php on line 2
Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl): failed to open stream: Unknown error: 0 in /usr/home/www/test.php on line 2
Warning: SoapClient::SoapClient(): I/O warning : failed to load external entity "h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl" in /usr/home/www/test.php on line 2
Fatal error: Uncaught SoapFault exception: [WSDL] SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn't load from 'h^tp://some.random.host/test.wsdl' in /usr/home/www/test.php:2 Stack trace: #0 /usr/home/www/test.php(2): SoapClient->SoapClient('h^tp://some.ran...') #1 {main} thrown in /usr/home/www/test.php on line 2

Note: had to replace http due to spam filter.

Contrary to my previous post, the error is not platform specific, but rather, a conflict with the xdebug module. With xdebug enabled, the soapfault does not get raised. Using xdebug_disable() prior to the try/catch block will result in the expected result of a catch with soapfault.

Warnings still exist, but can be disabled with error_reporting() prior to the try/catch as with xdebug.

Work around:

try {
    if(!@file_get_contents($wsdl)) {
        throw new SoapFault('Server', 'No WSDL found at ' . $wsdl);
    }
    $soap = new SoapClient($wsdl);
    // ...
} catch(SoapFault $e) {
    // ...
}

This is a XDEBUG issue, ext/soap may fix nothing.

http://bugs.xdebug.org/view.php?id=249