I am not sure that this fulfills your second paragraph, but it does the third. :)

use strict;

use SOAP::Transport::HTTP;
use XML::Writer;
use IO::String;

SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI   
   -> dispatch_to('Foo')
   -> handle
;

package Foo;

sub foo {
   my ($self,$value) = @_;

   my $output = IO::String->new;
   my $writer = XML::Writer->new(
      OUTPUT      => $output,
      DATA_MODE   => 1,
      DATA_INDENT => 3, 
   );
   
   $writer->startTag('foo');
   $writer->emptyTag('bar',type => $value);
   $writer->endTag('foo');
   $writer->end;

   return ${$output->string_ref};
}
[download]

use strict;

use SOAP::Lite;

print SOAP::Lite
   -> uri('http://localhost/Foo')
   -> proxy('http://localhost/cgi-bin/xml_soap.cgi')
   -> foo('baz')
   -> result
;
[download]

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)