UNIT 11
SOAP Toolkit Interoperability
- A Web service is a service that supports Web standards.
- It exposes its functionality and method of access in an XML file.
- Typically, this file contains a description of the message pattern and operation supported by the service.
- This file also contains a section that binds these operations into a concrete protocol.
One example of such file is the Web Service Description Language (WSDL)
- This file is published in the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
- Registry Repository- A Web service uses an XML based protocol for the exchange of information. This protocol specifies conventions for packaging a message and it's processing rules.
- Specification defines the binding for SOAP messages to be carried within a MIME multipart/related message.
- In order for Web services to reach their potential, standards organizations need to address the areas of discovery, description, quality of service, and context.
- Also, extensions to XMLP that provide added value, such as reliable delivery semantics, must be addressed.
Interoperability
As the usage of web services becomes pervasive, interoperability becomes increasingly important. Simply stated, a web service deployed and published, must be discovered and consumed by client programs, irrespective of the tools used in writing the service and the client.
For example, a SOAP client program that uses the Microsoft’s SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio must consume a web service that uses IBM’s Development Toolkit.
Currently, SOAP1.1 specifications make the assumption that a SOAP processor is SOAP1.1 compliant if on the wire format of the packet is compliant with the specification. This requirement, is a necessary condition for interoperability, but is not sufficient.
As more organizations adopt the SOAP1.1 specification, it is becoming clearer that not all aspects of the SOAP specification are being adopted.
Issues
SOAP Encoding is not being supported
The character set encoding, both sender and receiver must support the same encoding of the character set.Here the question arises to see which encoding specification to be used.
The protocol binding issue; both the client and the server must bind to the same transfer protocol.
Standardization on a protocol binding, such as HTTP, enhances interoperability and makes headways in the movement to thin clients.
Note : We are not advocating the exclusion of other protocol bindings to the XML protocol layer. But a balance will have to be maintained between flexibility and interoperability.
