See also, XML::Compile::SOAP and family.

I stopped before answering you thar SOAP::Lite sucks, and went and see on cpan.

When I tried and use SOAP::Lite in 2001 it was painfully incomplete (and inchoerent) with only a partial implementation of soap 1.1 and some quirks that costed me a week of debugging... Now it seems a much more mature object and if you have used it I'll really appreciate a valutation of its stability/features.

Rule One: Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man.

SOAP is not difficult to understand if you already know how to use XML. In short a SOAP web service works as follows

• The server waits for a connection
• A client establishes a connection to the server
• The client send a request stream
• The server answer with a response stream
• Connection is closed

The connection is really an HTTP connection in which you have to specify an URL (composed by address of server and name of the service you require) and a XML namespace. Both URL and namespace are application dependant so you should get them from the service provider.

The request and response streams are XML files, using the specified namespace, and contain the data you are exchanging with the server.

The structure of request and response streams are usually described in a WSDL document which is a XML schema document. WSDL too shoud be obtained from the service provider, as it completely describe the service itself.

Am I in the right direction ?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Request;

my $message = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/en
+velope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http
+://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <soapenv:Body>
         <ns1:searchEstablishments soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schem
+as.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:ns1="urn:ccc-search">
            <searchRequest href="#id0"/>
         </ns1:searchEstablishments>
         <multiRef id="id0" soapenc:root="0" soapenv:encodingStyle="ht
+tp://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xsi:type="ns2:SearchRequest"
+ xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:ns2=
+"http://request.services.ccc.imbs.strategis.ic.gc.ca">
            <docsPage href="#id1">2</docsPage>
            <docsPerPage href="#id2">25</docsPerPage>
            <entityServiceCode xsi:type="soapenc:string">ES</entitySer
+viceCode>
            <language xsi:type="soapenc:string">eng</language>
            <maxResults href="#id3">200</maxResults>
            <remoteBusinessPartner xsi:type="soapenc:string">xxx</remo
+teBusinessPartner>
            <remotePassword xsi:type="soapenc:string">xxx</remotePassw
+ord>
            <remoteServerAddress xsi:type="soapenc:string">xxx</remote
+ServerAddress>
            <searchCriteria href="#id4"/>
            <strategisPassword xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true
+"/>
            <strategisUserName xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true
+"/>
         </multiRef>
         <multiRef id="id3" soapenc:root="0" soapenv:encodingStyle="ht
+tp://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xsi:type="xsd:int" xmlns:soa
+penc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">100</multiRef>
         <multiRef id="id4" soapenc:root="0" soapenv:encodingStyle="ht
+tp://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xsi:type="ns3:SearchCriteria
+Bean" xmlns:ns3="http://model.services.ccc.imbs.strategis.ic.gc.ca" x
+mlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
            <areaServed xsi:type="ns4:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="tru
+e" xmlns:ns4="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <budget xsi:type="ns5:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true" x
+mlns:ns5="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <coAnlTotSlsCd xsi:type="ns6:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="
+true" xmlns:ns6="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <coAnlXprtSlsCd xsi:type="ns7:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil=
+"true" xmlns:ns7="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <coCageCd xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <coDandBNo xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <coDandBSfx xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <coPrdctNm xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <coTypCd xsi:type="ns8:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true" 
+xmlns:ns8="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <coXprtgActvIntInd xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true
+"/>
            <coXprtrInd xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <column xsi:type="soapenc:string">nm</column>
            <companyProfile xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <conceptOperator xsi:type="soapenc:string">and</conceptOpe
+rator>
            <estblmtCdaEmpCnt xsi:type="ns9:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:ni
+l="true" xmlns:ns9="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <estblmtCtyNm xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <estblmtNm xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <estblmtPstlZipCd xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"
+/>
            <fscCode xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <hitsPerPage xsi:type="soapenc:string">250</hitsPerPage>
            <indusCd xsi:type="ns10:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true"
+ xmlns:ns10="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <indusCdNm xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <isSummaryOn xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <isoCntryNo xsi:type="ns11:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="tr
+ue" xmlns:ns11="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <isoProvSteCd xsi:type="ns12:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="
+true" xmlns:ns12="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <jcoNo xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <niinCode xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <nsnCode xsi:type="ns13:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true"
+ xmlns:ns13="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <numberOfDocumentsReturned xsi:type="soapenc:string">100</
+numberOfDocumentsReturned>
            <numberOfMembers xsi:type="ns14:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:ni
+l="true" xmlns:ns14="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <numberOfVolunteers xsi:type="ns15:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi
+:nil="true" xmlns:ns15="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <orgFocus xsi:type="ns16:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true
+" xmlns:ns16="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <organizationType xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"
+/>
            <portal xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <prdctCtgryCd xsi:type="ns17:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="
+true" xmlns:ns17="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <provSteShrtNm xsi:type="ns18:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil=
+"true" xmlns:ns18="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <qltyCrtftnShrtDesc xsi:type="ns19:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi
+:nil="true" xmlns:ns19="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <sctrCd xsi:type="ns20:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true" 
+xmlns:ns20="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <sectorFocus xsi:type="ns21:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="t
+rue" xmlns:ns21="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <sortSpec xsi:type="soapenc:string">coid asc</sortSpec>
            <strategicAlliances xsi:type="ns22:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi
+:nil="true" xmlns:ns22="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <subPortal xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
            <tagId xsi:type="ns23:ArrayOf_xsd_string" xsi:nil="true" x
+mlns:ns23="urn:ccc-search"/>
            <textField xsi:type="soapenc:string">business</textField>
            <unspscCodeText xsi:type="soapenc:string" xsi:nil="true"/>
         </multiRef>
         <multiRef id="id2" soapenc:root="0" soapenv:encodingStyle="ht
+tp://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xsi:type="xsd:int" xmlns:soa
+penc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">10</multiRef>
         <multiRef id="id1" soapenc:root="0" soapenv:encodingStyle="ht
+tp://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xsi:type="xsd:int" xmlns:soa
+penc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">1</multiRef>
      </soapenv:Body>
   </soapenv:Envelope>';

my $userAgent = LWP::UserAgent->new();
my $request = HTTP::Request->new(GET => 'https://xxx');
$request->header(SOAPAction => 'https://xxx');
$request->content($message);
$request->content_type("text/xml; charset=utf-8");
my $response = $userAgent->request($request);

if($response->code == 200) {
    print $response->as_string;
}
else {
    print $response->error_as_HTML;
}
[download]

I should say so. Some points:

You could use SOAP::Lite module, which act as a wrapper around HTTP and SOAP protocols and can simplify the last part of the script. As I said earlier I personally don't use this module since 2002, so I can't be of much help here

You should use a XML serializer to build the request packet (I myself use XML::Writer) so that it is its responsability ensure the syntactical correctness of the XML stream (tag matching, escaping, an so on)

You said that your service require authentication, but I can't see a header tag in your envelope...

Rule One: Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man.