Question

I am familiar with http web service requests where parameters needed by the service are provided in the url query part, like ?parm=1 or ?file=”C:\test.xml”.

I am reading on SOAP at the moment and I wonder what calling technique lies behind this:
– is a SOAP request translated to a url in the background (transforming the SOAP xml into a string as part of the url query part)?
– does a SOAP request have a url equivalent always?
– or are both SOAP and http service requests translated into an http POST request in the background?
– where can I find good, clarifying examples of all this?

Answer 1

OK after some googling and reading I found the answers myself:
– a SOAP XML request is wrapped into an http POST request, inside the message body. The url is another item in the http request (inside the request line).
– there’s no url equivalent of a SOAP request (this is obvious from the former item)
– a SOAP service request is translated into an http POST request, whereas an http url web service call (including query part or not) is translated into an http GET request.
– see
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_HTTPRequestMessageFormat.htm
http://www.soapuser.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_soap.asp