Introduction to SOAP API
RapidAPI Comic cover: An introduction to SOAP API. A cartoon-drawn bar of soap surrounded by colorful bubbles.
SOAP is a web communication protocol and was designed by Microsoft in 1998. SOAP can use various protocols such as FTP, SMTP, TCP, and, most commonly, HTTP. a key fact about SOAP is that it exclusively uses the XML data format.
There are three key features of SOAP. Firstly it's extensible and was designed to support the expansion of added features. These are features such as WS-Security, WS-Atomic-Transaction, WS-Addressing, and WS-Reliable-messaging. Image shows each expansive feature in a bubble surrounding the cartoon bar of soap.
SOAP is language and platform-independent thanks to its XML data format. The image shows small bubbles containing the logos of various operating systems and programming languages.
SOAP has built-in error handling. If a problematic request is sent, the response will return information specific to the error.
What are the uses of SOAP? Thanks to its security extensibility, it is mainly used in enterprise-level companies that deal with complex transactions, identity management, and financial services. The image shows the cartoon bar of soap thinking about security, IDs, and money.