Preface

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), is a lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in a decentralized, distributed environment. This guide describes Oracle SOAP. Oracle SOAP is an implementation of the Simple Object Access Protocol that is based on the Apache SOAP open source implementation.

This preface contains the following topics:

• Audience

• Organization

• Related Documentation

• Conventions

• Documentation Accessibility

Audience

The Oracle9i Application Server Oracle9iAS SOAP Developer's Guide is intended for application programmers, system administrators, and other users who perform the following tasks:

• Configure software installed on the Oracle9i Application Server

• Create programs that implement SOAP services

• Create Java programs that run as SOAP clients

To use this document, you need a working knowledge of Java programming language fundamentals.

Organization

This document contains:

Chapter 1, "Simple Object Access Protocol Overview"

This chapter introduces the basic concepts for the Simple Object Access Protocol and provides a description of the SOAP architecture.

Chapter 2, "Using Oracle SOAP with Java Services"

This chapter provides an introduction to the procedures you use to write a SOAP Java service, to deploy the service, and to write a SOAP Java client that uses the service. The code examples in this chapter use the simple clock sample supplied with the Oracle SOAP installation.

Chapter 3, "SOAP Parameters and Encodings"

This chapter describes the procedures you use to write a SOAP Java service, to deploy the service, and to write a SOAP Java client for a service that uses arrays and other nonscalar types for parameters or return values. In addition, this chapter provides information on SOAP encodings.

Chapter 4, "SOAP Audit Logging"

This chapter describes the Oracle SOAP Audit Logging feature that monitors and records SOAP usage. Audit logging maintains records for postmortem analysis, accountability, and security. SOAP audit logging complements the audit logging capabilities available with the transport-specific server, the Apache HTTP Listener, that hosts the SOAP Request Handler Servlet (SOAP server).

Chapter 5, "SOAP Handlers"

The chapter describes Oracle SOAP handlers for the SOAP Request Handler Servlet. Handlers are configured in handler chains. Handlers are invoked to handle events associated with SOAP requests, responses, or errors.

Chapter 6, "Writing SOAP Providers"

This chapter describes the Oracle SOAP provider interface. The provider interface allows you to add your own service providers to Oracle SOAP.

Chapter 7, "Writing Deployment Managers"

This chapter describes advanced SOAP features, including the interfaces available for creating a Provider Manager and a Service Manager.

Chapter 8, "SOAP Administration"

This chapter describes configuration and administration details for Oracle SOAP.

Appendix A, "Apache Software License, Version 1.1"

This appendix contains the Apache software license.

Related Documentation

For more information, see the Overview Guide in the Oracle9i Application Server Documentation Library.

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Other customers can contact their Oracle representative to purchase printed documentation.

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). You must register online before using OTN; registration is free and can be done at,

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If you already have a username and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at,

http://technet.oracle.com/docs/index.htm

For additional information, see:

• http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP for information on the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1 specification

• http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema for information on XML schema

• http://www.w3.org/Addressing for information on URIs, naming, and addressing

• http://www.javasoft.com/products/javabeans/docs for information on JavaBeans

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

• Conventions in Text

• Conventions in Code Examples

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles or emphasis.	Oracle9i Database Concepts Ensure that the recovery catalog and target database do not reside on the same disk.
UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width font)	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, usernames, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a NUMBER column. You can back up the database by using the BACKUP command. Query the TABLE_NAME column in the USER_TABLES data dictionary view. Use the DBMS_STATS.GENERATE_STATS procedure.
lowercase monospace (fixed-width font)	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables, filenames, directory names, and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, usernames and roles, program units, and parameter values. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	Enter sqlplus to open SQL*Plus. The password is specified in the orapwd file. Back up the datafiles and control files in the /disk1/oracle/dbs directory. The department_id, department_name, and location_id columns are in the hr.departments table. Set the QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED initialization parameter to true. Connect as oe user. The JRepUtil class implements these methods.
lowercase monospace (fixed-width font) italic	Lowercase monospace italic font represents placeholders or variables.	You can specify the parallel_clause. Run Uold_release.SQL where old_release refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and are separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	{ENABLE | DISABLE}
|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	{ENABLE | DISABLE} [COMPRESS | NOCOMPRESS]
...	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery; SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees;
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as shown.	acctbal NUMBER(11,2); acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;
Italics	Italicized text indicates placeholders or variables for which you must supply particular values.	CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password DB_NAME = database_name
UPPERCASE	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES; DROP TABLE hr.employees;
lowercase	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; sqlplus hr/hr CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9;

Documentation Accessibility

Oracle's goal is to make our products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community with good usability. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.