Basics of SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol Last Updated : 21 May, 2024 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report Simple Object Access Protocol(SOAP) is a network protocol for exchanging structured data between nodes. It uses XML format to transfer messages. It works on top of application layer protocols like HTTP and SMTP for notations and transmission. SOAP allows processes to communicate throughout platforms, languages, and operating system, since protocols like HTTP are already installed on all platforms. SOAP was designed by Bob Atkinson, Don Box, Dave Winer, and Mohsen Al-Ghosein at Microsoft in 1998. SOAP was maintained by the XML Protocol Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium until 2009. Message Format SOAP message transmits some basic information as given below Information about message structure and instructions on processing it.Encoding instructions for application-defined data types.Information about Remote Procedure Calls and their responses.The message in XML format contains four parts- Envelope: This specifies that the XML message is a SOAP message. A SOAP message is an XML document containing a header and a body, both encapsulated within the envelope. Any fault is included within the body of the message.Header: This part is optional. When present, it can provide crucial information about the applications.Body: This contains the actual message being transmitted. Faults are contained within the body tags.Fault: This optional section contains the status of the application and any errors. It should not appear more than once in a SOAP message. Sample Message xml Content-Type: application/soap+xml <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"> <env:Header> <m:GetLastTradePrice xmlns:m="Some-URI" /> </env:Header> <env:Body> <symbol xmlns:p="Some-URI" >DIS</symbol> </env:Body> </env:Envelope> Advantages of SOAPSOAP is a light weight data interchange protocol because it is based on XML.SOAP was designed to be OS and Platform independent.It is built on top of HTTP which is installed in most systems.It is suggested by W3 consortium which is like a governing body for the Web.SOAP is mainly used for Web Services and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Basics of SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol O omkarchalke Follow Improve Article Tags : Computer Networks Web technologies-HTML and XML HTML and XML Similar Reads Construct a simple HTTP request on TCP protocol HTTP Request : HTTP messages are how data is exchanged between a server and a client. In this, there are two types of messages where one is HTTP client request and the second is the response from the server.Messages in textual form and it is encoded in ASCII form, and span over multiple lines. And m 3 min read Types of Authentication Protocols User authentication is the first most priority while responding to the request made by the user to the software application. There are several mechanisms made which are required to authenticate the access while providing access to the data. In this blog, we will explore the most common authenticatio 3 min read Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an internet protocol works on TCP/IP, used to access information from directories. LDAP protocol is basically used to access an active directory. Features of LDAP: Functional model of LDAP is simpler due to this it omits duplicate, rarely used and esot 4 min read Elements of Network protocol Pre-Requisite: Layers of OSI Model Network Protocols are a set of guidelines governing the exchange of information in a simple, dependable, and secure way. Network protocols are formal standards and policies comprised of rules, methodology, and configurations that define communication between two or 5 min read Difference between SOAP and HTTP Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a network protocol for exchanging structured data between nodes. It uses XML format to transfer messages. It works on top of application layer protocols like HTML and SMTP for notations and transmission. SOAP allows processes to communicate throughout platform 9 min read Like