Here an example that uses mod_soap, if you are not using mod_soap then i recommend you take a look at it. First, my Apache http.conf directive to make mod_soap autodispatch:

<Location /mod_soap>
   SetHandler perl-script
   PerlHandler Apache::SOAP
   PerlSetVar dispatch_to "/usr/local/apache/lib/soap"
</Location>
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package Factory;

use strict;
use DBI;

my $dbh = DBI->connect(
   qw(DBI:vendor:database:host user pass),
   { RaiseError => 1}
);

sub instantiate { 
   my ($self,$package,$id) = @_; 

   my $sth = $dbh->selectall_arrayref('
      select title,artist,year
      from songs
      where id = ?
   ',undef,$id)->[0];

   my $obj = eval { $package->new($id,@$sth) };
   return $@ ? undef : $obj;
}

package My::User;

use strict;

sub new {
   my ($class,$id,$title,$artist,$year) = @_;
   my $self = {
      id     => $id,
      title  => $title,
      artist => $artist,
      year   => $year,
   };
   return bless $self,$class;
}

# this will be discussed later ...
sub foo { 'foo' }

1;
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use strict;

use SOAP::Lite;
use Data::Dumper;

my $soap = SOAP::Lite
   ->uri("http://127.0.0.1/Factory")
   ->proxy("http://127.0.0.1/mod_soap");

my $object = $soap->instantiate('My::User','5')->result;

print Dumper $object;
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$VAR1 = bless( {
                 'artist' => 'Van Halen',
                 'title' => 'You Really Got Me',
                 'id' => '5',
                 'year' => '1978'
               }, 'My::User' );
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SOAP really helped me to understand more about Perl OO, especially the fact that an object DOES NOT carry its methods with it - instead, the interpreter knows which package the object is blessed and is able to find the method in question because you use'ed or require'ed the package.

To see what i mean, call the foo method from package My::User inside your SOAP client ...

my $object = $soap->instantiate('My::User','5')->result;
print $object->foo();

# yields:  
Can't locate object method "foo" via package "My::User" at ./instantia
+te.pl line 23.
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jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)