SOAP, .NET, and COM – an Introduction

SOAP is a protocol specification to invokemethods on servers, services, components and objects. The availableprocedure of using XML and HTTP as a method invocation mechanism isimplied by SOAP. A small number of HTTP headers that facilitatefirewall/proxy filtering are authorized by the SOAP specification. TheSOAP specification also mandates an XML vocabulary that is used torepresent method parameters, return values, and exceptions.

To exchange structured and typed informationbetween peers in a decentralized, distributed environment using XML,SOAP presents an uncomplicated mechanism. SOAP defines a simplemechanism for expressing application semantics by providing a modularpackaging model and encoding mechanisms for encoding data withinmodules instead of defining any application semantics such as aprogramming model or implementation specific semantics. This allowsSOAP to be used in a large variety of systems ranging from messagingsystems to RPC.

An Overview to SOAP

SOAP, (the Simple Object Access Protocol), isXML syntax to exchange messages. Moreover, since it is XML, it isindependent from both language and platform. In addition, SOAP is afundamental part of .NET, Microsoft's new development platform, and tounderstand what SOAP is and how it works it will be important fordevelopers to move towards .NET.

In SOAP, there are four parts:

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