SOAP Binding Service

The Web Services Stack uses SOAP messages to convey identity data between providers. OpenSSO Enterprise has implemented the Liberty ID-WSF SOAP Binding Specification (Liberty ID-WSF-SBS) as the method of transport for this purpose. The specification defines SOAP as the binding to HTTP, which is itself layered onto the TCP/IP stack. The SOAP Binding Service is a set of Java API used by the developer to send and receive SOAP messages.

The SOAP Binding Service is configured using the XML service file amSOAPBinding.xml and can be managed using the OpenSSO Enterprise console or this XML file. Additional administration information can be found in the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Administration Guide.

The following sections contain additional information on the SOAP Binding Service.

• SOAP Binding Service Components

• SOAP Binding Service Process

• Discovery Service API

SOAP Binding Service Components

The following sections contain information on some programming components of the SOAP Binding Service.

• SOAPReceiver Servlet

• RequestHandler Interface

SOAPReceiver Servlet

The SOAPReceiver servlet receives a Message object from a WSC, verifies the signature, and constructs its own Message object for processing by OpenSSO Enterprise. The SOAPReceiver then invokes the correct request handler class to pass this second Message object on to the appropriate OpenSSO Enterprise service for a response. When the response is generated, the SOAPReceiver returns this Message object back to the WSC.

RequestHandler Interface

com.sun.identity.liberty.ws.soapbinding.RequestHandler is an interface that must be implemented on the server side by any Liberty-based web service using the SOAP Binding Service. For more information, see the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Java API Reference and the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Developer’s Guide.

SOAP Binding Service Process

In the SOAP Binding Service process, an identity service invokes the Message class (contained in the Client SDK) to construct a request. (As clients of the SOAP Binding Service, the Discovery Service, the Liberty Personal Profile Service (and the sample Employee Profile Service), and the Authentication Web Service all use the SOAP Binding Service client-side API.) The Message object will contain any default or non-default SOAP headers as well as the SOAP body containing the request(s). Once generated, the WSC invokes the sendRequest method and sends the Message object to the SOAPReceiver which receives the Message, verifies the signature, and constructs its own Message object. The SOAPReceiver then invokes the appropriate Request Handler class to send this second message to the corresponding service for a response.

The web service processes the second message, generates a response, and sends that response back to the SOAPReceiver which, in turn, returns the response back to the WSC for processing.

Before invoking a corresponding service, the SOAP framework might also do the following:

• Authenticate the sender identity to verify the credentials of a WSC peer, probably by verifying its client certificate.

• Authenticate the invoking identity to verify the credentials of a WSC on behalf of a user to verify whether the user has been authenticated. This depends on the security authentication profile.

• Granular authorization to authorize the WSC before processing a service request.

SOAP Binding Service API

The SOAP Binding Service includes a Java package named com.sun.identity.liberty.ws.soapbinding. This package provides classes to construct SOAP requests and responses and to change the contact point for the SOAP binding. For more information, see the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Java API Reference and the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Developer’s Guide.