SOAP Ashish V. Tendulkar Directory Database integration group ( Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd. Pune (

Outline  The problem..  Why XML?  Why HTTP?  XML+HTTP = SOAP  SOAP Details  Uses of SOAP  Example

The problem.. Client App. Proxy Server Server Application Server Firewall

Implications  Industry not shifted completely to either one  Vendor specific  Lack of interoperability  Require high-tech runtime environment

Why XML?  Simple text markup language  Platform, language and vendor agnostic  Easily extensible  Capable of solving interoperability problem

Why HTTP?  Ubiquitous  Supported by every web browser and server  Effective technology for transferring text, graphics and other information

XML + HTTP = SOAP  HTTP is used for transport  XML as encoding scheme  Endpoint HTTP based URL for the target  Object mapping: implementation specific

SOAP call anatomy

SOAP Component HTTP Headers SOAP method name SOAP Envelope SOAP Header SOAP Body Call element Object Endpoint ID Method/Interface ID Extension Headers Parameter Data

Uses of SOAP  SOAP greatly simplifies data exchange in B2B application over extranet  Enables web site to integrate services from other sites  Remote scripting more prevalent with SOAP  Non-browser client could seamlessly access a service across web

Example Message POST /string_server/Object17 HTTP/1.1 Host: Content-Type: text/xml Content-Length: 152 SOAPMethodName: urn:strings-com:IString#reverse Hello, World

Example Response 200 OK Content-Type: text/xml Content-Length: 162 dlroW,olleH

Conclusion  SOAP is platform independent, language neutral protocol  SOAP does not replace COM and CORBA  SOAP works in place of DCOM and IIOP  SOAP does not pose huge security risks  Supports interoperation between different vendor specific implementations