SOAP
Overview
SOAP (Simple
Object Access Protocol) is a protocol for transporting XML based messages
between computer systems. Because SOAP is OS platform and programming
language independent it is an ideal protocol to provide web services used
is a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).
The Validate Web Service uses SOAP messages exclusively to
transfer data to and from your host application and the Validate web
service.
Deep down SOAP is a fairly complex protocol despite the word ‘Simple’ appearing in its title. The great thing about SOAP though is that it has been rapidly adopted by almost all vendors of programming languages and Integrated Programming Environments (IDEs). Also, SOAP toolkits are available for many business applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite.
Finally SOAP is often thought of as the 'glue' binds together loosely applications in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - You'll find SOAP based web services such as Validate are readily integrated into all Enterprise class SOA infrastructures.
