xml http request and response

I'm currently pretty new, but I need to do a little xml work. I could really use a good point in the right direction.
I have to create a xml request (which I have already done) but I then need to send it over to a remote server and then get the response which is in xml. Here's the only two options it says I can use:

1) The content-type fo the http header should be mime type "text/sml", and the xml formatted request should form the body of the http packet.
2)submit the xml request as the value ofa form field named "xmlrequest".

I can use php or perl to accomplish this (I would prefer using php if at all possible). Can anybody kindly let me know what direction to go in or let me know where I can find more information out. I've done plenty of searches in the last day or two. Am I able to use soap or xml-rpc? If this helps any more, the use the XML Schema validation.

hi,
If you use SOAP or XML-RPC the libraries takes care of all of what you have described. Of course there is a bit of a learning curve.
The alternative is for you to use something like the LWP module in perl or fsockopen in php and just post the XML . you will then need to use an xml parser to process the response.
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