Understanding SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol (Sams professional) Book

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a key piece in evolving Web standards for distributed objects. It promises to bridge diverse systems and technologies by providing an XML-based transport layer for invoking remote objects. Aimed at intermediate to advanced developers, Understanding SOAP is a detailed explanation of what SOAP is and how to use it.The opening chapter sets the stage by comparing SOAP to other distributed object technologies, in particular CORBA, DCOM and Java RMI. Next comes an introduction to XML and then an overview of SOAP itself. The use of SOAP with HTTP is examined. Then come three chapters which form the heart of the book. The first describes the SOAP payload, including the envelope, the header and the body. Next there is a look at how to encode data types and then a chapter on invoking remote methods with SOAP, including a discussion of state management and object activation.The second half of the book will be of most interest to Windows developers. There is coverage of Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, and then a detailed guide to implementing COM language binding with SOAP. This shows in effect how to use SOAP in place of DCOM (Distributed COM), to achieve the scalability and interoperability that DCOM cannot provide. An appendix sets out the SOAP 1.1 specification.Overall, this is an excellent read for developers who want a detailed understanding of this important XML protocol. --Tim AndersonRead More