Fatal error: Class Soap Client not found

Today, I was creating a web service through SOAP Client in PHP. Unfortunately, I got below fatal error “Class ‘SoapClient’ not found” on applications. I spent some time on Google to find a solution and found a working solution.

Here, I am sharing my understanding regarding this error. This error can occur on Linux as well as Windows systems.

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There are several reasons for this error to occur:

• Linux: You do not have php-soap installed into the system.
• Windows: You have not un-commented the following line out from the php.ini file.

Locate the php.ini file into xampp or wamp folder, The location would be your Apache bin folder, I.e Apache/bin/php.ini

By default, it looks like this:
;extension=php_soap.dll

It should appear like this:
extension=php_soap.dll

Let’s Restart your Apache server.

Verify Soap Client Using php.ini

You can check if PHP SOAP is enabled by using phpinfo. Open phpinfo (typically found at localhost/dashboard/phpinfo.php in XAMPP), then search for 'soap'. If you find the soap extension listed as shown below, it means you are ready to run SOAP services:

Even if you are getting the same error on the Windows system that means your extension directory path is not set.

It might be your extension_dir path sets a relative path.

You need to un-comment the extension_dir line if it’s commented into php.ini file. rather, you may have to set an absolute path to the extensions directory.

Un-Comment extension_dir into php.ini file
We will open the php.ini file and search extension_dir into this file. By default, it looks like this:
;extension_dir="ext"

Ensure it appears as follows:
extension_dir="C:/php/ext"

Conclusion

We have addressed Class ‘SoapClient’ not found” error. we can fix it by ensuring the presence of necessary modules and correctly configuring php.ini.