FedEx SOAP error : Schema validation failed for request Thursday, July 2, 2009

This issue is a bit tricky ! why does FedEx SOAP raises a Schema validation error ?

It seams that FedEx service is expecting you to perform a complete SOAP message including all elements even if you don't need on your service call.

Have a look on this C# code which performs a "valid" SOAP call :

PackageMovementInformationService svc = new PackageMovementInformationService();
            var request = new PostalCodeInquiryRequest();
            request.CarrierCode = CarrierCodeType.FDXE;
            request.ClientDetail = new ClientDetail 
                        { 
                            AccountNumber = "ACCOUNT_NO", 
                            Localization = new Localization 
                                        { 
                                            LanguageCode = "EN", 
                                            LocaleCode = "US-EN" 
                                        }, 
                            MeterNumber = "METER_NO" 
                        };
            request.CountryCode = "US";
            request.PostalCode = "38017";
            request.WebAuthenticationDetail = new WebAuthenticationDetail 
            { 
                UserCredential = new WebAuthenticationCredential 
                                        { 
                                            Key = "__KEY__", 
                                            Password = "_Password_"
                                        } 
            };
            request.Version = new VersionId ();
            request.TransactionDetail = new TransactionDetail 
            { 
                CustomerTransactionId = "23", 
                Localization = new Localization { LocaleCode="US-EN", LanguageCode="EN" } 
            };

            PostalCodeInquiryReply reply = svc.postalCodeInquiry(request);

This code didn't generate any validation errors because i simply did not leave any of PostalCodeInquiryRequest class members not instantiated.

if are using Ruby,Python or PHP just check you fill all the SOAP request elements.


UPDATE : for a comprehensive details of what elements are missing check an element named "detail" of the SOAP exception response.