CSA Preface

Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the SCC Mirror Committee (SMC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T).

Abstract

SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol intended for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. "Part 1: Messaging Framework" defines, using XML technologies, an extensible messaging framework containing a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols.

Introduction

SOAP Version 1.2 (SOAP) is a lightweight protocol intended for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. It uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework providing a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation specific semantics.

Two major design goals for SOAP are simplicity and extensibility (see XMLP Requirements [XMLP Requirements]). SOAP attempts to meet these goals by omitting, from the messaging framework, features that are often found in distributed systems. Such features include but are not limited to "reliability", "security", "correlation", "routing", and "Message Exchange Patterns" (MEPs). While it is anticipated that many features will be defined, this specification provides specifics only for two MEPs. Other features are left to be defined as extensions by other specifications.

The SOAP Version 1.2 specification consists of three parts. Part 1 of the SOAP Version 1.2 specification (this document) defines the SOAP messaging framework consisting of:

1.The SOAP processing model defining the rules for processing a SOAP message (see 2. SOAP Processing Model).

2.The SOAP Extensibility model defining the concepts of SOAP features and SOAP modules (see 3. SOAP Extensibility Model).

3.The SOAP underlying protocol binding framework describing the rules for defining a binding to an underlying protocol that can be used for exchanging SOAP messages between SOAP nodes (see 4. SOAP Protocol Binding Framework).

4.The SOAP message construct defining the structure of a SOAP message (see 5. SOAP Message Construct).

The SOAP 1.2 Primer [SOAP Part 0] is a non-normative document intended to provide an easily understandable tutorial on the features of the SOAP Version 1.2 specifications.

SOAP 1.2 Part 2 [SOAP Part 2] describes a set of adjuncts that can be used in connection with the SOAP messaging framework.

Note:

In previous versions of this specification the SOAP name was an acronym. This is no longer the case.