The SOAP Layer

Above the transport layer is the SOAP layer. This layer, which is defined in the SOAP Specification, specifies the XML scheme used to identify the message parts: envelope, header, body, and attachments. All SOAP message parts and contents, except for the attachments, are written in XML. The following sample SOAP message shows how XML tags are used to define a SOAP message:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope
   xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
   SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle=
           "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
      <SOAP-ENV:Body>
          <m:GetLastTradePrice xmlns:m="Some-URI">
              <symbol>DIS</symbol>
          </m:GetLastTradePrice>
      </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>


            

The wire transport and SOAP layers are actually sufficient to do SOAP messaging. You could create an XML document that defines the message you want to send, and you could write HTTP commands to send the message from one side and to receive it on the other. In this case, the client is limited to sending synchronous messages to a specified URL. Unfortunately, the scope and reliability of this kind of messaging is severely restricted. To overcome these limitations, the provider and profile layers are added to SOAP messaging.