Scribd
Upload
22 views

Level of Difficulty 2: Code For This Article

SOAP facilitates interoperability across programs and platforms by combining proven web technologies like HTTP and XML. It allows existing applications to be accessible to a broader range of users without requiring applications to change how they are programmed. SOAP uses HTTP as its transport and XML as its encoding scheme, allowing HTTP servers like IIS and Apache to instantly support SOAP with just an XML parser. This benefits from the wide availability and proven engineering of these web servers. SOAP codifies using XML over HTTP, making it useful for remote procedure calls between applications in a simple request-response style.

Uploaded by

Brinda BM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
22 views

Level of Difficulty 2: Code For This Article

SOAP facilitates interoperability across programs and platforms by combining proven web technologies like HTTP and XML. It allows existing applications to be accessible to a broader range of users without requiring applications to change how they are programmed. SOAP uses HTTP as its transport and XML as its encoding scheme, allowing HTTP servers like IIS and Apache to instantly support SOAP with just an XML parser. This benefits from the wide availability and proven engineering of these web servers. SOAP codifies using XML over HTTP, making it useful for remote procedure calls between applications in a simple request-response style.

Uploaded by

Brinda BM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

A Young Person's Guide to The Simple Object Access Protocol: SOAP Increases Interoperability Across Platforms and anguages

Don Box This article assumes youre familiar with COM and XML

e!el of "ifficulty
S&''A(Y

Code for this article: SOA !exe "#$%B&

The Sim'le O()ect Access rotocol "SOA & facilitates intero'era(ility amon* a wide ran*e of 'ro*rams and 'latforms+ ma,in* existin* a''lications accessi(le to a (roader ran*e of users! SOA com(ines the 'ro-en .e( technolo*y of /TT with the flexi(ility and extensi(ility of XML! This article ta,es you on a com'rehensi-e tour of O()ect 0 C technolo*y to hel' you understand the foundations of SOA and the ways it o-ercomes many of the limitations of existin* technolo*ies+ includin* DCOM and CO0BA! This is followed (y a detailed treatment of the SOA encodin* rules with a focus on how SOA ma's onto existin* O0 C conce'ts!

hen I began my computing career in 1984, most programmers didnt care about network protocols. However, sometime in the 199 s networking became ubi!uitous, and now its hard to imagine using a computer without some "orm o" connectivity. #oday the average programmer is more interested in building scalable, distributed applications than implementing "loating, semi$transparent, nonrectangular, owner$drawn %oolbars in &'%. (rogrammers pre"er to think in terms o" programming models, not network protocols. #hough thats generally a good thing, in this article Ill discuss the )imple *b+ect ,ccess (rotocol -)*,(., a network protocol that happens to have no e/plicit programming model. #his doesnt mean that the architects o" )*,( -including the author. are out to "undamentally change the way you program. 0ather, one o" the primary goals o" )*,( is to make your e/isting programs more accessible to a broader range o" users. #o this end, there is no )*,( ,(I or )*,( *b+ect 0e!uest 1roker -*01.. Instead, )*,( assumes that you will use as much e/isting technology as possible. )everal ma+or %*01, vendors have committed to support the )*,( protocol in their *01 products. &icroso"t has committed to support )*,( in "uture versions o" %*&. 2evelop&entor has developed re"erence implementations that make )*,( accessible to any 3ava$ language or (erl programmer on any plat"orm. #he guiding principle behind )*,( is to 4"irst invent no new technology.4 )*,( uses two e/isting and widely deployed protocols5 H##( and 6&7. H##( is )*,(s 0(%$style transport, and 6&7 is its encoding scheme. 8ith a "ew lines o" code and an 6&7 parser, H##( servers such as &icroso"t9 Internet In"ormation )erver -II). and ,pache instantly become )*,( *01s. :iven the "act that over hal" o" the planets 8eb tra""ic is directed at II) or ,pache, )*,( bene"its "rom the proven engineering and wide availability o" these two products. #his does not mean, however, that all )*,( re!uests must be routed through a 8eb server. #raditional 8eb servers are +ust one way to dispatch )*,( re!uests. 8eb services like II) or ,pache are su""icient, but by no means necessary "or building )*,($enabled applications. ,s this article will describe, )*,( simply codi"ies the use o" 6&7 as an H##( payload. #he most common application o" )*,( is as a 0emote (rocedure %all -0(%. protocol. #o understand how )*,( works, it is use"ul to take a brie" look into the history o" 0(% protocols. (P)s Throughout *istory #he two dominant communication models "or building distributed applications are message passing -o"ten combined with !ueuing. and re!uest;response. &essage passing systems typically allow any party to send messages at any time. 0e!uest;response protocols restrict the communication pattern to re!uest;response pairs. &essaging$based applications are acutely aware that they are communicating with e/ternal concurrent processes and re!uire an e/plicit design style. 0e!uest;response$based applications more closely resemble a single$process application, since the application that sends the re!uest is more or less blocked until it receives the response "rom the second process. #his makes re!uest;response communications a natural "it "or 0(% applications. 8hile both messaging and re!uest;response have their advantages, either one can be implemented in terms o" the other. &essaging systems can be built using lower$level re!uest;response protocols. 'or e/ample, &icroso"t &essage <ueue )erver -&)&<. uses 2%= 0(% internally "or most o" its control logic. 0(% systems can be built using lower$level messaging systems. &)&< provides a correlation I2 "or e/actly this purpose. 'or better or worse, most applications tend to use 0(% protocols due to their wider availability, simpler design, and natural mapping to traditional programming techni!ues. 2uring the 198 s, the two dominant 0(% protocols were )un 0(% and 2%= 0(%. #he most popular )un 0(% application is the >etwork 'ile )ystem ->'). used by most ?ni/ systems. #he most popular 2%= 0(% application is 8indows >#9, which uses the 2%= 0(% protocol "or a number o" system services. 1oth o" these protocols proved to be !uite "unctional and adaptable to a wide range o" applications. However, as the decade neared an end, the industrys obsession

+or related articles see: htt':11msdn!microsoft!com1xml1*eneral1soa's'ec2-3!as' htt':11www!microsoft!com1mind143441soa'1soa'!as' The author recommends: htt':11www!w#!or*1XML htt':11www!de-elo'!com1soa' ,ac-ground information: The author recommends: IIOP Complete+ .illiam 0uh+ Thomas /erron+ aul %lin,er "Addison .esley&5 Computer Networks+ Andrew Tannen(aum " rentice /all& "on ,o. is a cofounder of De-elo'Mentor+ a COM thin,

tan, that educates the software industry in COM+ MTS+ and ATL! Don wrote Essential COM+ and coauthored the follow2u' Effective COM "Addison2.esley+ 3667&! 0each Don at htt':11www!de-elo'!com1d(ox!

issue of MSD9 Ma*a:ine! ;et it at your local newsstand+ or (etter yet+ subscribe!
8rom the March $444

You might also like