Simple Object Access Protocol
:: based on W3Schools tutorial ::
Institute of Computing Science
Pozna
´
n University of Technology
$Id: soap.lyx,v 1.4 2002/06/12 20:13:36 sobaniec Exp $
What is SOAP?
SOAP is a simple XML based protocol to let applications exchange information over HTTP
• SOAP is a communication protocol
• SOAP is for communication between applications
• SOAP is a format for sending messages
• SOAP is designed to communicate via Internet
• SOAP is platform independent
• SOAP is language independent
• SOAP is based on XML
• SOAP is simple and extensible
• SOAP allows you to get around firewalls
• SOAP will be developed as a W3C standard
WebServices: http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/
Institute of Computing Science
Pozna
´
n University of Technology
SOAP (1/16)
Background
1. RPC
✘ compatibility
✘ security
✘ firewalls and proxy servers usually block RPC calls
2. DCOM
3. Corba
Microsoft and SOAP
✔ SOAP is a key element of Microsoft’s .NET architecture for future Internet application devel-
opment
✔ SOAP 1.1 was Proposed to W3C
✔ W3C is working with SOAP 1.2
Institute of Computing Science
Pozna
´
n University of Technology
SOAP (2/16)
SOAP Building Blocks
A SOAP message is an ordinary XML document and it contains the following elements:
• A SOAP envelope, that defines the content of the message
• A SOAP header (optional), that contains header information
• A SOAP body, that contains call and response information
SOAP Syntax
• A SOAP message MUST be encoded using XML
• A SOAP message MUST have a SOAP Envelope
• A SOAP message CAN have a SOAP header
• A SOAP message MUST have a SOAP Body
• A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Envelope namespace
• A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Encoding namespace
• A SOAP message must NOT contain a DTD reference
• A SOAP message must NOT contain XML Processing Instructions
Institute of Computing Science
Pozna
´
n University of Technology
SOAP (3/16)