SOAP

Overview

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a messaging protocol for exchanging structured data between applications over a network, typically over HTTP. It’s a type of web service protocol and is widely used for building web services and web API.

Structure

A SOAP message is an XML document that contains the following elements:

• Envelope: The root element of a SOAP message. It defines the start and end of the message and specifies the namespace for the SOAP envelope.
• Header: This is optional and contains application-specific information related to the message.
• Body: This contains the actual message or payload, which can be a request or a response.
• Fault: This is optional and contains error information in case of a failure.

Request and response

A SOAP message can be in the form of a request or a response. A request message is sent by the client to the server and contains the necessary information for the server to process the request. A response message is sent by the server to the client and contains the result of the request.