$().SPServices is best for SOAP

By Anatoly Mironov

SPServices is a great tool, really nice work, Marc Anderson (@sympmarc). It has been there all the time I have developed for SharePoint. But the fact that you work with XML and you must parse the attributes (!) was the reason why I prefered listdata.svc and Client Object Model, where you get objects in JSON or you have a nice API to get objects and their properties. But there is an area where SPServices are really the best tool: SharePoint Web Services which only understand SOAP like SocialDataService.asmx.

Three ways to get list items

Just a little comparison. We’ll retrieve Titles from Tasks list (Oppgaver in nb-no). listdata.svc

$.getJSON("/\_vti\_bin/ListData.svc/Oppgaver()?$select=Tittel")
	.done(function(data){
	  var tasks = data.d.results;
		for(var t in tasks) {
			var title = tasks\[t\].Tittel;
			console.log(title);
		}
	})
	.fail(function() {
		console.log("error");
	});
```Pay attention to the field name: Tittel. I think it is the biggest shortcoming of listdata.svc: the fact that we can't use the internal (static) field names. **Client Object Model**

var ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current(); var web = ctx.get_web(); var taskList = web.get_lists().getByTitle(“Oppgaver”); var query = new SP.CamlQuery(""); var tasks = taskList.getItems(query); ctx.load(tasks); ctx.executeQueryAsync(function() { var listEnumerator = tasks.getEnumerator(); while(listEnumerator.moveNext()) { var task = listEnumerator.get_current(); var title = task.get_item(“Title”); console.log(title); } }, function() { console.log(“error”); });

**SPServices**

$().SPServices({     operation: “GetListItems”,     async: true,     listName: “Oppgaver”,     CAMLViewFields: “”,     completefunc: function (xData, Status) {         $(xData.responseXML).SPFilterNode(“z:row”).each(function() {             console.log( $(this).attr(“ows_Title”) );                 });     } });


##### SPServices and SocialDataService

Let's try to find the count of comments for an url. To do so we must create a SOAP envelope in javascript, send it and handle the response result:

var strUrl = “http://dev/Sider/Help.aspx”; var request = “<soap:Envelope \ xmlns:xsi=‘http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' \ xmlns:xsd=‘http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' \   xmlns:soap=‘http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'> \     soap:Body    \       <CountCommentsOnUrl \ xmlns=‘http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/SocialDataService'> \         ” + strUrl + “ \       \      </soap:Body> \   </soap:Envelope>”;

jQuery.ajax({ type: “POST”, async: true, url: ‘/_vti_bin/SocialDataService.asmx?op=CountCommentsOnUrl’, data: request, contentType: “text/xml; charset=utf-8”, dataType: “xml”, success: function (content, txtFunc, xhr) { var count = jQuery(content).find(‘CountCommentsOnUrlResult’).text(); console.log(count); } });

$().SPServices({ operation: “CountCommentsOnUrl”, async: true, url:“http://dev/Sider/Help.aspx”, completefunc: function (xData, Status) { var result = $(xData.responseXML).find(“CountCommentsOnUrlResult”)[0]; console.log($(result).text()); } });

<soap:Envelope   xmlns:soap=“http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"     xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"     xmlns:xsd=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">   soap:Body       <CountCommentsOnUrlResponse           xmlns=“http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/SocialDataService">       1       </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope>