SOAP stands for Simple Object Access
Protocol.

Using SOAP, programs or applications can speack with each other over
the internet using XML messages over HTTP.



This is an Internet friendly alternative to other communication protocols
like Microsoft's DCOM, Sun's RMI or OMG's CORBA/IIOP.

The SOAP messages can be described using an XMLSchema.

A good and small tutorial about SOAP is here :W3SCHOOLS.COM
> SOAP

On the XML.COM
Website, one can find an example of SOAP Message :

<?xml version='1.0'?>

<SOAP:Envelope

  xmlns:SOAP='urn:schemas-xmlsoap-org:soap.v1'>

 <SOAP:Body>

  <i:getBalance

    xmlns:i='urn:develop-com:IBank'>

   <account>23619-22A</account>

  </i:getBalance>

 </SOAP:Body>

</SOAP:Envelope>

This message could be used in a eBanking application to ask to the Bank
Account Balance Server to give the actual balance of an account.

The server would then respond by this kind of message (by use of a
CGI, ASP page, PHP script or whatever).

200 OK

Content-Type: text/xml

Content-Length: nnnn

<?xml version='1.0'?>

<SOAP:Envelope

   xmlns:SOAP='urn:schemas-xmlsoap-org:soap.v1'>

 <SOAP:Body>

  <i:getBalanceResponse

    
xmlns:i='urn:develop-com:IBank'>

   <amount>45.21</amount>

  </i:getBalanceResponse>

 </SOAP:Body>

</SOAP:Envelope>