SOAP (protocol)

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks. It relies on Extensible Markup Language (XML) as its message format, and usually relies on other Application Layer protocols (most notably Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and HTTP) for message negotiation and transmission. SOAP can form the foundation layer of a web services protocol stack, providing a basic messaging framework upon which web services can be built.

As a layman's example of how SOAP procedures can be used, a SOAP message could be sent to a web service enabled web site (for example, a house price database) with the parameters needed for a search. The site would then return an XML-formatted document with the resulting data (prices, location, features, etc). Because the data is returned in a standardized machine-parsable format, it could then be integrated directly into a third-party site.

Sample SOAP message

Request

<soapenv:Envelope
    xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/
                        http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soapenv:Body>
    <req:echo xmlns:req="http://localhost:8080/axis2/services/MyService/">
      <req:category>classifieds</req:category>
    </req:echo>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Response

<soapenv:Envelope
    xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
    xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/
                        http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soapenv:Header>
    <wsa:ReplyTo>
      <wsa:Address>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</wsa:Address>
    </wsa:ReplyTo>
    <wsa:From>
      <wsa:Address>http://localhost:8080/axis2/services/MyService</wsa:Address>
    </wsa:From>
    <wsa:MessageID>ECE5B3F187F29D28BC11433905662036</wsa:MessageID>
  </soapenv:Header>
  <soapenv:Body>
    <req:echo xmlns:req="http://localhost:8080/axis2/services/MyService/">
      <req:category>classifieds</req:category>
    </req:echo>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>