SOAP Binding Process

In the SOAP Binding process, an identity service invokes the Message class (contained in the client-side API) to construct a request. (As clients of the SOAP Binding Service, the Access Manager Discovery Service, implemented Data Services Template services (including 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 SOAP endpoint URL on the server side. The URL is, in effect, a servlet called the SOAPReceiver. The SOAPReceiver 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.

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 Request Handler List.

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.