SOAP Binding Process

In the SOAP Binding process, an identity service calls the client-side application programming interface (API) to construct a message and send it to the SOAP endpoint URL. The URL is, in effect, a servlet that receives and processes SOAP messages.

The Discovery Service, implemented Data Services Template services (including the Liberty Personal Profile Service and the sample Employee Profile Service), and the Authentication Web Service use the SOAP Binding Service client API.

The SOAP Receiver servlet receives the message, verifies the signature, and constructs a second message. The SOAP Receiver servlet then invokes the correct 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 service processes the second message, generates a response, and sends that response back to the SOAP Receiver servlet. The SOAP receiver, in turn, sends the response back to the service 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.