SOAP
The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a more complex RPC mechanism than XML-RPC, but both share a common basis (an underlying protocol based on XML and HTTP) and conceptual model. SOAP adds many features to RPC, including explicit support for asynchronous message delivery via the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), the basis for delivery of Internet email.
The use of SOAP versus XML-RPC depends largely on the eventual target use of your application and who or what you’re communicating with. Generally, the simplicity of XML-RPC has led to widespread adoption, whereas the overall sophistication and capabilities of SOAP have led to broader adoption in the enterprise (not to mention the explicit endorsement of SOAP by entities such as Microsoft and IBM).
This chapter looks at Apache Axis 1.0, an open source implementation of the SOAP 1.1 specification providing both server and client capabilities.
Obtaining Axis
You can download Apache Axis 1.0 from http://xml.apache.org/axis/. The download used here is Release 1.0 from http://xml.apache.org/axis/releases.html.
Installation
The rest of this chapter assumes that you are working with JBoss, installed as described in Chapter 14.
Tip
The process of installing Axis under Tomcat is similar to installation under JBoss. For complete instructions, refer to http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/~checkout~/xml-axis/java/docs/install.html.
SOAP requires a servlet (or, sometimes, several servlets) to receive requests, and then respond ...
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