Technology Update

A SOAP based API is a pratical method of integration between document management and line of business applications

A SOAP based API is the standard method of communicating with Archive Studio WebSearch document management software and other line of business applications.

SOAP initially addressed as Simple Object Access Protocol, was developed as a standard to exchange data over the Internet. In other words, SOAP takes the data and shares it via the internet. The data is encoded in an XML format, which has specific rules for encoding and processing. The actual transmission of the XML data is managed by the transport protocol, which is HTTP served by a web server. The combination of the open XML encoding style and the different protocol makes SOAP a better interoperable wired protocol. The original version of SOAP specification was very closely aligned with HTTP. With the release of the 1.1 and subsequent specification, other Internet protocols could be used as transport layers. The transportation protocol locates the remote system and initiates communications. The arrangement of information within the SOAP packet, textual data, should comply with XML specifications. The textual data allows for maximum system compatibility. Having the text in XML allows you to dictate what data content the text should encapsulate. Using XML schemas and namespaces, you can apply rigid data types to remote methods. The XML based protocol defines what is in the message and how to process it. The areas SOAP specification does not address are left to the individual SOAP implementation’s architect to design into a specific implementation. Some advantages of using SOAP are

• SOAP is built upon open technologies, rather than vendor-specific technologies, and facilitates true distributed interoperability.

• Different standards like SMTP, HTTP, JMS can be used in while sending data in SOAP giving the developers better flexibility.

• Changes to the SOAP infrastructure will likely not affect applications using the protocol, unless significant serialization changes are made to the SOAP specification.

Some SOAP features that can impact performance:

• SOAP was initially tied to the HTTP protocol mandating request/response architecture that is not appropriate for all situations. Though different protocols can be used, lot of SOAP implementations still use HTTP.

• The XML format being verbose can slower the SOAP messages if the messages are big

If you compare with other systems such as CORBA, DCOM, or Java RMI, proper runtime environments should be installed; the users system should be configured to accommodate non SOAP systems etc. In some cases it is also needed to reconfigure firewall(s) to allow the system-specific packets to enter and leave local network. In contrast the SOAP protocol is very easy to incorporate as well as very easy to administer.

Whether or not the advantages of using SOAP outweigh the disadvantages will likely depend to a great degree upon the requirements levied upon the architecture. How SOAP is used depends entirely on the problem you are trying to solve. To summarize the three major characteristics of SOAP: Extensibility (New extensions can be easily developed), Neutrality (Usage of different transport protocol such as HTTP, SMTP or even TCP helps the cause), and Independence (having open technologies means SOAP can be used any vendors) makes SOAP a great mechanism for transporting data over the internet

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Tagged document management, edms

Related Posts

A SOAP based API is a pratical method of integration between document management and line of business applications

A SOAP based API is the standard method of communicating with Archive Studio WebSearch document management software and other line of business applications.

SOAP initially addressed as Simple Object Access Protocol, was developed as a standard to exchange data over the Internet. In other words, SOAP takes the data and shares it via the internet. The data is encoded in an XML format, which has specific rules for encoding and processing. The actual transmission of the XML data is managed by the transport protocol, which is HTTP served by a web server. The combination of the open XML encoding style and the different protocol makes SOAP a better interoperable wired protocol. The original version of SOAP specification was very closely aligned with HTTP. With the release of the 1.1 and subsequent specification, other Internet protocols could be used as transport layers. The transportation protocol locates the remote system and initiates communications. The arrangement of information within the SOAP packet, textual data, should comply with XML specifications. The textual data allows for maximum system compatibility. Having the text in XML allows you to dictate what data content the text should encapsulate. Using XML schemas and namespaces, you can apply rigid data types to remote methods. The XML based protocol defines what is in the message and how to process it. The areas SOAP specification does not address are left to the individual SOAP implementation’s architect to design into a specific implementation. Some advantages of using SOAP are

• SOAP is built upon open technologies, rather than vendor-specific technologies, and facilitates true distributed interoperability.

• Different standards like SMTP, HTTP, JMS can be used in while sending data in SOAP giving the developers better flexibility.

• Changes to the SOAP infrastructure will likely not affect applications using the protocol, unless significant serialization changes are made to the SOAP specification.

Some SOAP features that can impact performance:

• SOAP was initially tied to the HTTP protocol mandating request/response architecture that is not appropriate for all situations. Though different protocols can be used, lot of SOAP implementations still use HTTP.

• The XML format being verbose can slower the SOAP messages if the messages are big

If you compare with other systems such as CORBA, DCOM, or Java RMI, proper runtime environments should be installed; the users system should be configured to accommodate non SOAP systems etc. In some cases it is also needed to reconfigure firewall(s) to allow the system-specific packets to enter and leave local network. In contrast the SOAP protocol is very easy to incorporate as well as very easy to administer.

Whether or not the advantages of using SOAP outweigh the disadvantages will likely depend to a great degree upon the requirements levied upon the architecture. How SOAP is used depends entirely on the problem you are trying to solve. To summarize the three major characteristics of SOAP: Extensibility (New extensions can be easily developed), Neutrality (Usage of different transport protocol such as HTTP, SMTP or even TCP helps the cause), and Independence (having open technologies means SOAP can be used any vendors) makes SOAP a great mechanism for transporting data over the internet

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tagged document management, edms

Related Posts