SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
This guide presents SOAP articles, tutorials, examples, tips, tools, white papers, expert advice and more to pump up your SOAP know-how quickly.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
![]()
Requires Free Membership to View
W3C Abstract: "SOAP is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information in a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses. SOAP can potentially be used in combination with a variety of other protocols; however, the only bindings defined in this document describe how to use SOAP in combination with HTTP and HTTP Extension Framework."
SOAP Quick Start
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Glossary Definition: SOAP (powered by whatis.com)
- Flash Movie: What is SOAP? (SearchWebServices.com and LearnVisualStudio.NET)
- SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer (W3C)
- Editor-selected SOAP primers (SearchWebServices.com)
- SOAP Version 1.2 - Frequently Asked Questions (W3C)
- SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer (W3C)
- Collection of SOAP tutorials (SearchWebServices.com)
- Learn SOAP (TopXML)
- Quick start with SOAP (Perl.com)
- SOAP tutorial (W3Schools.com)
- In plain language, what is SOAP? (SearchWebServices.com)
SOAP Products for Download
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Collection of SOAP Tools (SearchWebServices.com)
- Apache SOAP (Apache)
- DocSOAP XDK (Commerce One)
- IBM ETTK (IBM)
- IONA XMLBus (IONA)
- PocketSOAP (pocketsoap.com)
- SOAP Toolkit (Microsoft)
- Systinet WASP (Systinet)
- TestMaker (PushToTest)
- The Mind Electric GLUE (The Mind Electric)
- Wingfoot SOAP client (Wingfoot)
- Enterprise Web Services (evaluation copy) (webMethods)
SOAP Articles
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Browse this collection of editor-selected SOAP articles bookmarked from around the Web. (SearchWebServices.com)
- Read this tutorial called A how-to guide for supporting digital signatures within SOAP messages. (Brenda Coulson, Software Architect, Cysive, Inc.)
- Read this XML Developer tip called All in a lather about SOAP. (Ed Tittel, SearchWebServices.com)
- Read this article called SOAP: Disrupting the balance of power. (Annrai O'Toole, Executive Chairman, Cape Clear)
- Read this .NET Developer tip called Understanding SOAP extensions. (Bob Tabor, LearnVisualStudio.NET)
SOAP Code Samples
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Collection of editor-selected SOAP examples to help you get up-to-speed. (SearchWebServices.com)
- SOAP Tools and Source Code (SOAPClient.com)
- Web Services Interoperability: From Hello World application to SOAP-based Web service (O'Reilly)
- SOAP is really Simple (PerfectXML.com
- Soap Examples (SoapRPC.com)
- SOAP examples for Curl developers (CurlExamples.com)
- Sample Packages (webMethods)
Industry Quotes about SOAP
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Don Box, co-author of the SOAP specification, Microsoft: "We're not looking to change SOAP. We're very happy with it, so we think SOAP 1.2 should be the end of the line. If we need to do a SOAP 1.3, then the extensibility model in SOAP 1.2 wasn't that good."
- Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst, ZapThink: "Today's Web services are often little more than software components wrapped in SOAP interfaces, and as such, today's software testing tool vendors only need to add simple XML support to their product lines in order to offer Web Services testing capabilities to their customers."
- Janet Daly, W3C representative: "Soap version 1.2 is the first Soap spec to go through any kind of independent development and review -- one could say it's the first Soap standard."
SOAP White Papers
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Introduction to Web services (Systinet)
- Web services standards (Commerce One)
- XML Web Services Basics (Microsoft)
- Web services - Make the most of your existing business assets (Software AG)
- Why XML APIs are not enough for application syndication (WebCollage)
- Web services gateway (Actional)
- Web services conceptual architecture (IBM)
- Overview of SOAP Client in Windows XP (Microsoft)
Q & A with SOAP Experts
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Are there any security problems related to SOAP?
- What elements do I need to build a SOAP server and a client?
- What criteria can I use to determine when to use SOAP or not?
- How does SOAP fit into the grander scheme of Web services?
- Got questions? Pose your own SOAP question to SOAP expert Anne Thomas Manes.
Live SOAP Applications
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Download the SOAP Message Validator from Microsoft.
- Visit the SOAP Live Services from Systinet.
- Visit the VeriSign SOAP Payment Service from webMethods.
Online SOAP Resources
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- Comprehensive collection of editor-selected SOAP resources (SearchWebServices.com)
- XML Cover Pages: SOAP
- SOAPClient.com
- SoapWare.org
- SoapRPC.com
- SOAP Lite
SOAP Specs
[ Return to Table of Contents ]
- SOAP 1.1 specification (W3C)
- SOAP Version 1.2 Part 1: Messaging Framework (W3C)
- SOAP Version 1.2 Specification Assertions and Test Collection (W3C)

Join the conversationComment
Share
Comments
Results
Contribute to the conversation