SOAP Introduction

## Web Services

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## WSDL Tutorial

WSDL Intro WSDL Documents WSDL PortType WSDL Binding WSDL and UDDI

## SOAP Tutorial

SOAP Intro SOAP Syntax SOAP Envelope SOAP Header SOAP Body SOAP Fault SOAP HTTP Binding SOAP Example

## RDF Tutorial

RDF Intro RDF Rules RDF Example RDF Elements RDF Containers RDF Collections RDF Schema RDF Dublin Core RDF OWL RDF Reference

# SOAP Introduction

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SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.

SOAP is a protocol for accessing web services.

SOAP is based on XML.

## What You Should Already Know

Before you study SOAP you should have a basic understanding of XML and XML Namespaces.

If you want to study these subjects first, please read our XML Tutorial.

## What is SOAP?

- SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol
- SOAP is a communication protocol
- SOAP is for communication between applications
- SOAP is a format for sending messages
- SOAP communicates 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 is a W3C recommendation

## Why SOAP?

It is important for application development to allow Internet communication between programs.

Today's applications communicate using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) between objects like DCOM and CORBA, but HTTP was not designed for this. RPC represents a compatibility and security problem; firewalls and proxy servers will normally block this kind of traffic.

A better way to communicate between applications is over HTTP, because HTTP is supported by all Internet browsers and servers. SOAP was created to accomplish this.

SOAP provides a way to communicate between applications running on different operating systems, with different technologies and programming languages.

## SOAP is a W3C Recommendation

SOAP became a W3C Recommendation 24. June 2003.

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