SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol

by Jan Egil Refsnes

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a new XML based protocol to let software components communicate over the Internet. SOAP is a key element of Microsoft's Windows DNA 2000 architecture for future Internet application development. The Microsoft draft specification has now been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force.

The Internet communication protocol ( HTTP) is supported by all Internet browsers and servers. An important need for future Internet application development is to allow communication between remote applications Todays distributed applications communicates using remote procedure calls (RPC) between distributed object like DCOM and COBRA. HTTP was not designed for this, and using RPC over the Internet also represents a security problem so firewalls and proxy servers will normally block this kind of traffic.

Facts about SOAP:

• SOAP is drafted by Microsoft
• SOAP is an XML based communication protocol
• SOAP is meant to communicate via HTTP
• SOAP is not tied to any component technology
• SOAP will not be blocked by firewalls 

Resources:

SOAP Mailing List:
http://discuss.develop.com/soap.html

SOAP FAQ:
http://ww.develop.com/soap/soapfaq.xml

SOAP White Paper:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/xml/general/SOAP_White_Paper.asp

SOAP Draft Specification:
http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-box-http-soap-01.txt

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