function parse_request($data='') {
		$this->debug('entering parse_request()');
		$this->parse_http_headers();
		$this->debug('got character encoding: '.$this->xml_encoding);
		// uncompress if necessary
		if (isset($this->headers['content-encoding']) && $this->headers['content-encoding'] != '') {
			$this->debug('got content encoding: ' . $this->headers['content-encoding']);
			if ($this->headers['content-encoding'] == 'deflate' || $this->headers['content-encoding'] == 'gzip') {
		    	// if decoding works, use it. else assume data wasn't gzencoded
				if (function_exists('gzuncompress')) {
					if ($this->headers['content-encoding'] == 'deflate' && $degzdata = @gzuncompress($data)) {
						$data = $degzdata;
					} elseif ($this->headers['content-encoding'] == 'gzip' && $degzdata = gzinflate(substr($data, 10))) {
						$data = $degzdata;
					} else {
						$this->fault('SOAP-ENV:Client', 'Errors occurred when trying to decode the data');
						return;
					}
				} else {
					$this->fault('SOAP-ENV:Client', 'This Server does not support compressed data');
					return;
				}
			}
		}
		$this->request .= "\r\n".$data;
		$data = $this->parseRequest($this->headers, $data);
		$this->requestSOAP = $data;
		$this->debug('leaving parse_request');
	}