How do I send XML to a web service?

Question

I am brand new to Flex. I am trying to write a program that
uses web services to send and receive data. I have gotten it so
that it can receive XML from the web service. However, I also need
to send it, and I am stuck.
I have tried the following code:
<mx:WebService id="MyService"
wsdl="
http://localhost/FlexTest/service1.asmx?WSDL"
useProxy="false"
result="resultHandler(event)">
<!-- Input: XML Document...Output: String -->
<mx:operation
name="HelloPersonAcceptsXmlDocumentReturnsString">
<mx:request>
<personXmlDoc>xmlPerson</personXmlDoc>
</mx:request>
</mx:operation>
<!-- Input: XML Node...Output: String -->
<mx:operation
name="HelloPersonAcceptsXmlNodeReturnsString">
<mx:request>
<personXmlNode>
xmlPerson.Person
</personXmlNode>
</mx:request>
</mx:operation>
<!-- Input: String (XML Format)...Output: String -->
<mx:operation
name="HelloPersonAcceptsXmlStringReturnsString">
<mx:request format="xml">
<personXmlString><p1:Person xmlns:p1="
http://impact-tech.com/schemas/FlexTest"><p1:ID>f1bd45fc-544b-489d-83cf-349d1f9740ec</p1:I D><p1:FirstName>Joe</p1:FirstName><p1:MiddleName>C.</p1:MiddleName><p1:LastName>Blow</p1:L astName><p1:BirthDate>2006-09-11T14:03:04.4755443-04:00</p1:BirthDate><p1:IsMarried>false< /p1:IsMarried><p1:NumChildren>0</p1:NumChildren><p1:NetWorth>100000</p1:NetWorth></p1:Pers on></personXmlString>
<!--<personXmlString>{xmlPerson.toXmlString()}</personXmlString>-->
<!--<personXmlString>{txInput.text}</personXmlString>-->
</mx:request>
</mx:operation>
</mx:WebService>
In the first operation,
"HelloPersonAcceptsXmlDocumentReturnsString", I try to send an XML
object. In the second operation,
"HelloPersonAcceptsXmlNodeReturnsString", I try to send the root
node, xmlPerson.Person. In both cases, what actually gets sent is
literally the text that I put in the <request>node, not the
object that text is referencing. So for the first, "xmlPerson" gets
sent to the target, not the XML doc that it refers to.
In the third operation, I tried three different things, and
two are commented out. I tried to reference the XML object using
the toXmlString() method, but again, it literally sent the text
"xmlPerson.toXmlString()". I tried the curly-brace binding, but
then nothing gets sent to the web service. I also tried building
the actual XML document node by node, with values, but I get an
error from the web service saying it can't be parsed because there
is an illegal character at Line 1, Position1. The only thing which
has worked has been to add an Input Text box, copy-and-paste the
exact same XML structure as I tried to manually build, and then use
binding to the text property of the InputText control. Then it
works fine. But I can't actually do that, it's just for testing.
So my question is how to make a <request> node that is
part of the web service operation that references an object and
sends the value of that object to the web service, not literally
whatever text is typed in that node. I looked at the Web Services
and Data Binding sections of the help, and didn't see any examples
covering this. Everything was far more simplistic with binding to
controls. Can anyone help a newbie, please?

Answer 1

I don't understand how this isn't a Flex Builder question,
since it has to do with how Flex Builder interacts with web
services and how objects are used in binding in MXML.
But at any rate, I got this code to work, for future
reference of anyone else looking in this forum:
Declaring a custom class in MXML was key to allow proper
binding:
<CustomClasses:Person id="testPerson" xmlns:local="*"/>
<mx:WebService id="MyService"
wsdl="
http://66.129.123.211/FlexTest/service1.asmx?WSDL"
useProxy="false"
result="resultHandler(event)">
<!-- Input: XML Document...Output: String -->
<mx:operation
name="HelloPersonAcceptsXmlDocumentReturnsString">
<mx:request>
<personXmlDoc>{testPerson.GetXmlDoc()}</personXmlDoc>
</mx:request>
</mx:operation>
</mx:WebService>