Category: soap

SOAP – Examples ”; Previous Next In the example below, a GetQuotation request is sent to a SOAP Server over HTTP. The request has a QuotationName parameter, and a Quotation will be returned in the response. The namespace for the function is defined in http://www.xyz.org/quotation address. Here is the SOAP request − POST /Quotation HTTP/1.0 Host: www.xyz.org Content-Type: text/xml; charset = utf-8 Content-Length: nnn <?xml version = “1.0”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <SOAP-ENV:Body xmlns:m = “http://www.xyz.org/quotations”> <m:GetQuotation> <m:QuotationsName>MiscroSoft</m:QuotationsName> </m:GetQuotation> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> A corresponding SOAP response looks like − HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/xml; charset = utf-8 Content-Length: nnn <?xml version = “1.0”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <SOAP-ENV:Body xmlns:m = “http://www.xyz.org/quotation”> <m:GetQuotationResponse> <m:Quotation>Here is the quotation</m:Quotation> </m:GetQuotationResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Fault ”; Previous Next If an error occurs during processing, the response to a SOAP message is a SOAP fault element in the body of the message, and the fault is returned to the sender of the SOAP message. The SOAP fault mechanism returns specific information about the error, including a predefined code, a description, and the address of the SOAP processor that generated the fault. Points to Note A SOAP message can carry only one fault block. Fault is an optional part of a SOAP message. For HTTP binding, a successful response is linked to the 200 to 299 range of status codes. SOAP Fault is linked to the 500 to 599 range of status codes. Sub-elements of Fault The SOAP Fault has the following sub elements − Sr.No Sub-element & Description 1 <faultCode> It is a text code used to indicate a class of errors. See the next Table for a listing of predefined fault codes. 2 <faultString> It is a text message explaining the error. 3 <faultActor> It is a text string indicating who caused the fault. It is useful if the SOAP message travels through several nodes in the SOAP message path, and the client needs to know which node caused the error. A node that does not act as the ultimate destination must include a faultActor element. 4 <detail> It is an element used to carry application-specific error messages. The detail element can contain child elements called detail entries. SOAP Fault Codes The faultCode values defined below must be used in the faultcode element while describing faults. Sr.No Error & Description 1 SOAP-ENV:VersionMismatch Found an invalid namespace for the SOAP Envelope element. 2 SOAP-ENV:MustUnderstand An immediate child element of the Header element, with the mustUnderstand attribute set to “1”, was not understood. 3 SOAP-ENV:Client The message was incorrectly formed or contained incorrect information. 4 SOAP-ENV:Server There was a problem with the server, so the message could not proceed. SOAP Fault Example The following code is a sample Fault. The client has requested a method named ValidateCreditCard, but the service does not support such a method. This represents a client request error, and the server returns the following SOAP response − <?xml version = ”1.0” encoding = ”UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <SOAP-ENV:Fault> <faultcode xsi:type = “xsd:string”>SOAP-ENV:Client</faultcode> <faultstring xsi:type = “xsd:string”> Failed to locate method (ValidateCreditCard) in class (examplesCreditCard) at /usr/local/ActivePerl-5.6/lib/site_perl/5.6.0/SOAP/Lite.pm line 1555. </faultstring> </SOAP-ENV:Fault> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Message Structure ”; Previous Next A SOAP message is an ordinary XML document containing the following elements − Envelope − Defines the start and the end of the message. It is a mandatory element. Header − Contains any optional attributes of the message used in processing the message, either at an intermediary point or at the ultimate end-point. It is an optional element. Body − Contains the XML data comprising the message being sent. It is a mandatory element. Fault − An optional Fault element that provides information about errors that occur while processing the message. All these elements are declared in the default namespace for the SOAP envelope − http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope and the default namespace for SOAP encoding and data types is − http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding NOTE − All these specifications are subject to change. So keep updating yourself with the latest specifications available on the W3 website. SOAP Message Structure The following block depicts the general structure of a SOAP message − <?xml version = “1.0”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <SOAP-ENV:Header> … … </SOAP-ENV:Header> <SOAP-ENV:Body> … … <SOAP-ENV:Fault> … … </SOAP-ENV:Fault> … </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP_ENV:Envelope> Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Encoding ”; Previous Next SOAP includes a built-in set of rules for encoding data types. It enables the SOAP message to indicate specific data types, such as integers, floats, doubles, or arrays. SOAP data types are divided into two broad categories − scalar types and compound types. Scalar types contain exactly one value such as a last name, price, or product description. Compound types contain multiple values such as a purchase order or a list of stock quotes. Compound types are further subdivided into arrays and structs. The encoding style for a SOAP message is set via the SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle attribute. To use SOAP 1.1 encoding, use the value http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/ To use SOAP 1.2 encoding, use the value http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding Latest SOAP specification adopts all the built-in types defined by XML Schema. Still, SOAP maintains its own convention for defining constructs not standardized by XML Schema, such as arrays and references. Scalar Types For scalar types, SOAP adopts all the built-in simple types specified by the XML Schema specification. This includes strings, floats, doubles, and integers. The following table lists the main simple types, excerpted from the XML Schema Part 0 − Primer http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xmlschema-0-20000407/ Simple Types Built-In to XML Schema Simple Type Example(s) string Confirm this is electric. boolean true, false, 1, 0. float -INF, -1E4, -0, 0, 12.78E-2, 12, INF, NaN. double -INF, -1E4, -0, 0, 12.78E-2, 12, INF, NaN. decimal -1.23, 0, 123.4, 1000.00. binary 100010 integer -126789, -1, 0, 1, 126789. nonPositiveInteger -126789, -1, 0. negativeInteger -126789, -1. long -1, 12678967543233 int -1, 126789675 short -1, 12678 byte -1, 126 nonNegativeInteger 0, 1, 126789 unsignedLong 0, 12678967543233 unsignedInt 0, 1267896754 unsignedShort 0, 12678 unsignedByte 0, 126 positiveInteger 1, 126789. date 1999-05-31, —05. time 13:20:00.000, 13:20:00.000-05:00 For example, here is a SOAP response with a double data type − <?xml version = ”1.0” encoding = ”UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:getPriceResponse xmlns:ns1 = “urn:examples:priceservice” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <return xsi:type = “xsd:double”>54.99</return> </ns1:getPriceResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> Compound Types SOAP arrays have a very specific set of rules, which require that you specify both the element type and array size. SOAP also supports multidimensional arrays, but not all SOAP implementations support multidimensional functionality. To create an array, you must specify it as an xsi:type of array. The array must also include an arrayType attribute. This attribute is required to specify the data type for the contained elements and the dimension(s) of the array. For example, the following attribute specifies an array of 10 double values − arrayType = “xsd:double[10]” In contrast, the following attribute specifies a two-dimensional array of strings − arrayType = “xsd:string[5,5]” Here is a sample SOAP response with an array of double values − <?xml version = ”1.0” encoding = ”UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:getPriceListResponse xmlns:ns1 = “urn:examples:pricelistservice” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <return xmlns:ns2 = “http://www.w3.org/2001/09/soap-encoding” xsi:type = “ns2:Array” ns2:arrayType = “xsd:double[2]”> <item xsi:type = “xsd:double”>54.99</item> <item xsi:type = “xsd:double”>19.99</item> </return> </ns1:getPriceListResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> Structs contain multiple values, but each element is specified with a unique accessor element. For example, consider an item within a product catalog. In this case, the struct might contain a product SKU, product name, description, and price. Here is how such a struct would be represented in a SOAP message − <?xml version = ”1.0” encoding = ”UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:getProductResponse xmlns:ns1 = “urn:examples:productservice” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding”> <return xmlns:ns2 = “urn:examples” xsi:type = “ns2:product”> <name xsi:type = “xsd:string”>Red Hat Linux</name> <price xsi:type = “xsd:double”>54.99</price> <description xsi:type = “xsd:string”> Red Hat Linux Operating System </description> <SKU xsi:type = “xsd:string”>A358185</SKU> </return> </ns1:getProductResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> NOTE − Please take care of proper indentation while you write your SOAP code. Each element in a struct is specified with a unique accessor name. For example, the message above includes four accessor elements − name, price, description, and SKU. Each element can have its own data type. For example, name is specified as a string, whereas price is specified as double. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Useful Resources ”; Previous Next The following resources contain additional information on SOAP. Please use them to get more in-depth knowledge on this topic. Infinite Email Subscribers: Viral Giveaway & Social Contests 10 Lectures 1 hours Zach Miller More Detail Sales Funnel Blueprint & Fundamentals Course 74 Lectures 9.5 hours Zach Miller More Detail The Ultimate MailChimp Email Marketing Course 18 Lectures 1.5 hours Zach Miller More Detail Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP Tutorial PDF Version Quick Guide Resources Job Search Discussion SOAP is an open-standard, XML-based messaging protocol for exchanging information among computers. This is a brief tutorial that introduces the readers to the fundamentals of SOAP before moving on to explain its various elements, encoding, and how SOAP is transported. Audience This tutorial has been prepared for beginners to help them understand the basics of SOAP and how to implement it in practice. Prerequisites As a reader of this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of client/server environment, and knowledge of XML and XML namespace. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

What is SOAP? ”; Previous Next SOAP is an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is an XML-based messaging protocol for exchanging information among computers. SOAP is an application of the XML specification. Points to Note SOAP is a communication protocol designed to communicate via Internet. SOAP can extend HTTP for XML messaging. SOAP provides data transport for Web services. SOAP can exchange complete documents or call a remote procedure. SOAP can be used for broadcasting a message. SOAP is platform- and language-independent. SOAP is the XML way of defining what information is sent and how. SOAP enables client applications to easily connect to remote services and invoke remote methods. Although SOAP can be used in a variety of messaging systems and can be delivered via a variety of transport protocols, the initial focus of SOAP is remote procedure calls transported via HTTP. Other frameworks including CORBA, DCOM, and Java RMI provide similar functionality to SOAP, but SOAP messages are written entirely in XML and are therefore uniquely platform- and language-independent. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Standards ”; Previous Next SOAP 1.1 was originally submitted to the W3C in May 2000. Official submitters included large companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Ariba, and smaller companies such as UserLand Software and DevelopMentor. In July 2001, the XML Protocol Working Group released a “working draft” of SOAP 1.2. Within the W3C, this document is officially a work in progress, meaning that the document is likely to be updated many times before it is finalized. SOAP Version 1.1 is available online at http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/ The working draft of SOAP Version 1.2 is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12/ Note that the W3C also hosts a submission for “SOAP Messages with Attachments”, which separates from the core SOAP specification. This specification enables SOAP messages to include binary attachments such as images and sound files. For full details, see the W3C Note at http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP-attachments. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

SOAP – Transport ”; Previous Next SOAP is not tied to any transport protocol. SOAP can be transported via SMTP, FTP, IBM”s MQSeries, or Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ). SOAP specification includes details on HTTP only. HTTP remains the most popular SOAP transport protocol. SOAP via HTTP Quite logically, SOAP requests are sent via an HTTP request and SOAP responses are returned within the content of the HTTP response. While SOAP requests can be sent via an HTTP GET, the specification includes details on HTTP POST only. Additionally, both HTTP requests and responses are required to set their content type to text/xml. The SOAP specification mandates that the client must provide a SOAPAction header, but the actual value of the SOAPAction header is dependent on the SOAP server implementation. For example, to access the AltaVista BabelFish Translation service, hosted by XMethods, you must specify the following as a SOAPAction header. urn:xmethodsBabelFish#BabelFish Even if the server does not require a full SOAPAction header, the client must specify an empty string (“”) or a null value. For example − SOAPAction: “” SOAPAction: Here is a sample request sent via HTTP to the XMethods Babelfish Translation service − POST /perl/soaplite.cgi HTTP/1.0 Host: services.xmethods.com Content-Type: text/xml; charset = utf-8 Content-Length: 538 SOAPAction: “urn:xmethodsBabelFish#BabelFish” <?xml version = ”1.0” encoding = ”UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:BabelFish xmlns:ns1 = “urn:xmethodsBabelFish” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/”> <translationmode xsi:type = “xsd:string”>en_fr</translationmode> <sourcedata xsi:type = “xsd:string”>Hello, world!</sourcedata> </ns1:BabelFish> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> Note the content type and the SOAPAction header. Also note that the BabelFish method requires two String parameters. The translation mode en_fr translates from English to French. Here is the response from XMethods − HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2001 15:01:55 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) tomcat/1.0 PHP/4.0.1pl2 SOAPServer: SOAP::Lite/Perl/0.50 Cache-Control: s-maxage = 60, proxy-revalidate Content-Length: 539 Content-Type: text/xml <?xml version = “1.0” encoding = “UTF-8”?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENC = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/” SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/” xmlns:xsi = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:SOAP-ENV = “http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/” xmlns:xsd = “http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema”> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <namesp1:BabelFishResponse xmlns:namesp1 = “urn:xmethodsBabelFish”> <return xsi:type = “xsd:string”>Bonjour, monde!</return> </namesp1:BabelFishResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> SOAP responses delivered via HTTP are required to follow the same HTTP status codes. For example, a status code of 200 OK indicates a successful response. A status code of 500 Internal Server Error indicates that there is a server error and that the SOAP response includes a Fault element. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Discuss SOAP ”; Previous Next SOAP is an simple and open-standard, XML-based protocol for exchanging information between computers. This is a brief tutorial that introduces the readers to the fundamentals of SOAP before moving on to explain its various elements, encoding, and how SOAP is transported. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;