How does Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) help in Internet Communication
The main
reason for the design of SOAP by Microsoft was to facilitate the utilization
of the web services provided by one application for use by another, irrespective
of the object model, operating system or language in which both the applications
are created. With this, a widely distributed, complex computing environment
can be created leveraging on the existing internet infrastructure. SOAP
enables component based services over the Internet so that Web services
are available for a wide range of users achieving code re-use using “Black
box” techniques. Unlike other
RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocols like DCOM, CORBA, etc. which are
object model specific and not compatible with internet, SOAP is based
on XML using HTTP protocol which is supported by all browsers and servers.
Although SMTP is also a valid protocol layer for SOAP, it is often used
with HTTP as a protocol layer making it easier to communicate through
firewalls and proxies. To understand the simplicity of SOAP, it is better
to know about how it works: Similar to
a HTTP message packet that has its own message format maintained for communication,
a SOAP message has the following sections: • Envelope
: to identify that the XML document is a SOAP message (mandatory) Communication
using SOAP The three
main components involved in the SOAP communication over the internet are
as below: • SOAP
client The SOAP
client sends a SOAP request similar to that of below sample over HTTP
through the internet. The SOAP server recognizes the request as a SOAP
request and routes to its service manager (after checking whether the
service is listed in the server), which then forwards it to the XML Translator.
This XML translator decodes the method (service) to be invoked on the
COM component (or the Java bean) and translates the result back to XML
format to be sent as response. Thus, a high level of encapsulation of
implementation of the service is achieved which makes it easier for applications
to be interoperable. Sample
SOAP Request <soapenv:Envelope Sample
SOAP Response The main
limitation of SOAP is that due to its verbose XML data, the performance
can be a drawback in cases where bulk data has to be transmitted. It is
suggested to use MTOM (Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism) concepts
to embed binary objects in messages in such cases. In its simple
and versatile nature of development, SOAP has provided a facility to achieve
interoperability among widely distributed web based enterprise applications
cutting down the development time, cost, and leveraging on existing applications
and resources.
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