There are many modules available for developing Web Services clients or servers available for Perl ¹⁾. These fall into two broad categories:

General purpose modules which implement Web Services technologies (i.e. REST or SOAP)
Service libraries which implement the client and/or server interface for a service type (e.g. OpenSearch ²⁾) or for a specific service.

A selection of modules commonly used to access Web Services are listed below.

General Purpose

Perl modules which implement Web Services technologies, for example:

Web Service Style	Perl Module
REST	LWP (CPAN)
	REST::Client (CPAN)
	WWW::Curl (CPAN)
	WWW::Curl::Simple (CPAN)
SOAP	SOAP (CPAN)
	SOAP::Lite (CPAN)
	SOAP::WSDL (CPAN)
	XML::Compile::SOAP (CPAN)

Note: When building a SOAP client the choice of Perl module is driven by compatibility with the Web Service(s) being used (e.g. RPC/encoded vs. Document/literal support), see SOAP Styles and the tutorials.

Client Libraries

Purpose built libraries for a type of service or a specific service, for example:

Web Service Type	Perl Module
AtomPub	Atompub (CPAN)
DAS	Bio::Das (CPAN)
	Bio::Das::Lite (CPAN)
DrugBank	WWW::Search::DrugBank (CPAN)
GMOD	Bio::GMOD (CPAN)
HGNC	WWW::Search::HGNC (CPAN)
Integr8	SOAP::Integr8 (CPAN)
ISI Web of Knowledge	SOAP::ISIWoK (CPAN)
NCBI	Boulder::Genbank (CPAN)
	NCBIx::BigFetch (CPAN)
OpenSearch	WWW::OpenSearch (CPAN)
PDB	WWW::PDB (CPAN)
PharmGKB	WWW::Search::PharmGKB (CPAN)
PubChem	WWW::Search::PubChem (CPAN)
PubMed	WWW::Search::NCBI::PubMed (CPAN)
	WWW::Search::PubMed (CPAN)
	WWW::Search::PubMedLite (CPAN)

BioPerl

BioPerl (CPAN) includes support for a number of bioinformatics Web Services, for example:

Web Service	BioPerl Module
dbfetch	Bio::Biblio
	Bio::DB::BioFetch
	Bio::DB::EMBL
	Bio::DB::RefSeq
	Bio::DB::SwissProt
NCBI E-Utilities	Bio::Biblio
	Bio::DB::EUtilities
	Bio::DB::EntrezGene
	Bio::DB::GenBank
	Bio::DB::GenPept
	Bio::DB::Taxonomy
Open Biological Database Access (OBDA) ³⁾	Bio::DB::Registry ⁴⁾
OpenBQS	Bio::Biblio
QBlAST URL API	Bio::Tools::Run::RemoteBlast
Soaplab	Bio::Tools::Run::AnalysisFactory

Tutorials

Prerequisites

Knowledge of the following is required for these tutorials:

Perl. In particular the following:
- Perl references and nested data structures
- Perl objects
Extensible Markup Language (XML) ⁵⁾
- XML Tutorial from w3schools.com
XML Schema ⁶⁾
- XML Schema Tutorial from w3schools.com

Web Services Tutorials Examples and Solutions

The examples and solutions for the exercises are available: perl_exercises.zip

The download is based on the E.P.I.C. project used to develop the tutorials. The files are explicitly referenced in the tutorials and links provided to the on-line versions. E.P.I.C. is not required to work though the exercises, a text editor and a working Perl installation are the only requirements.

To import the project into Eclipse:

Download and install Eclipse
If necessary install Perl, see http://www.perl.com/download.csp
Install the E.P.I.C. plug-in for Eclipse
Configure E.P.I.C. to use the installed Perl
Download the project
Unpack the project into a working directory
Import the project into Eclipse using “File” → “Import…”
1. For “import source” select “General” → “Existing Projects into Workspace”
2. Specify the working directory containing the project
3. Select the project

Initially the project will contain errors due to some code generated as part of the exercises not being present. Additionally there may be some errors due to some of the Perl modules required by the scripts not being installed.