diff --git a/lib/soap/phpsoap.php b/lib/soap/phpsoap.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f207ee90ad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/soap/phpsoap.php
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+<?php // $Id$
+/**
+* Library of SOAP functions wrapping the PHP5 SOAP functions
+*
+* The purpose of this wrapping is to make it easier to use alternative SOAP
+* implementations like nuSOAP in case the PHP5 SOAP extension is not available
+* @version $Id$
+* @author Alex Smith and others members of the Serving Mathematics project
+*         {@link http://maths.york.ac.uk/serving_maths}
+* @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU Public License
+* @package quiz
+*/
+
+/**
+* Create a new SoapClient object
+*
+* @param string $wsdl   URI of the WSDL file
+* @param boolean $trace indicates if the soap messages should be saved (i.e. if
+*                       get_soap_messages is used) and should be used only for debugging
+* @return mixed         Returns either a SoapClient object or, if the connection failed,
+*                       a SoapFault object.
+*/
+function soap_connect($wsdl, $trace=false) {
+    try {
+        $connection = new SoapClient($wsdl, array('soap_version'=>SOAP_1_1, 'exceptions'=>true, 'trace'=>$trace));
+    }
+    catch (SoapFault $f) {
+        $connection = $f;
+    }
+    catch (Exception $e) {
+        $connection = new SoapFault('client', 'Could not connect to the service');
+    }
+    return $connection;
+}
+
+/**
+* Make a call to a SoapClient
+*
+* @param SoapClient $connection  The SoapClient to call
+* @param string $call            Operation to be performed by client
+* @param array $params           Parameters for the call
+* @return mixed                  The return parameters of the operation or a SoapFault
+*                                If the operation returned several parameters then these
+*                                are returned as an object rather than an array
+*/
+function soap_call($connection, $call, $params) {
+    try {
+        $return = $connection->__soapCall($call, $params);
+    }
+    catch (SoapFault $f) {
+        $return = $f;
+    }
+    catch (Exception $e) {
+        $return = new SoapFault('client', 'Could call the method');
+    }
+    // return multiple parameters using an object rather than an array
+    if (is_array($return)) {
+        $keys = array_keys($return);
+        $assoc = true;
+        foreach ($keys as $key) {
+            if (!is_string($key)) {
+                $assoc = false;
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        if ($assoc)
+            $return = (object) $return;
+    }
+    return $return;
+}
+
+function soap_serve($wsdl, $functions) {
+    // create server object
+    $s = new SoapServer($wsdl);
+    // export functions
+    foreach ($functions as $func)
+        $s->addFunction($func);
+    // handle the request
+    $s->handle();
+}
+
+function make_soap_fault($faultcode, $faultstring, $faultactor='', $detail='', $faultname='', $headerfault='') {
+    return new SoapFault($faultcode, $faultstring, $faultactor, $detail, $faultname, $headerfault);
+}
+
+function get_last_soap_messages($connection) {
+    return array('request'=>$connection->__getLastRequest(), 'response'=>$connection->__getLastResponse());
+}
+
+// Fix simple type encoding - work around a bug in PHP
+function soap_encode($value, $name, $type, $namespace, $encode=XSD_STRING) {
+    $value = new SoapVar($value, $encode, $type, $namespace);
+    if ('' === $name)
+        return $value;
+    return new SoapParam($value, $name);
+}
+
+// Fix complex type encoding - work around a bug in PHP
+function soap_encode_object($value, $name, $type, $namespace) {
+    if (!is_object($value))
+        return $value;
+    $value = new SoapVar($value, SOAP_ENC_OBJECT, $type, $namespace);
+    if ('' === $name)
+        return $value;
+    return new SoapParam($value, $name);
+}
+
+// Fix array encoding - work around a bug in PHP
+function soap_encode_array($value, $name, $type, $namespace) {
+    if (!is_array($value))
+        return $value;
+    $value = new SoapVar($value, SOAP_ENC_ARRAY, 'ArrayOf' . $type, $namespace);
+    if ('' === $name)
+        return $value;
+    return new SoapParam($value, $name);
+}
+
+?>