Understanding SOAP: Amazon.ca: Kenn Scribner, Mark Stiver: Books

Product Description

From Amazon

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a key piece in evolving Web standards for distributed objects. It promises to bridge diverse systems and technologies by providing an XML-based transport layer for invoking remote objects. Aimed at intermediate to advanced developers, Understanding SOAP is a detailed explanation of what SOAP is and how to use it.

The opening chapter sets the stage by comparing SOAP to other distributed object technologies, in particular CORBA, DCOM and Java RMI. Next comes an introduction to XML and then an overview of SOAP itself. The use of SOAP with HTTP is examined. Then come three chapters which form the heart of the book. The first describes the SOAP payload, including the envelope, the header and the body. Next there is a look at how to encode data types and then a chapter on invoking remote methods with SOAP, including a discussion of state management and object activation.

The second half of the book will be of most interest to Windows developers. There is coverage of Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, and then a detailed guide to implementing COM language binding with SOAP. This shows in effect how to use SOAP in place of DCOM (Distributed COM), to achieve the scalability and interoperability that DCOM cannot provide. An appendix sets out the SOAP 1.1 specification.

Overall, this is an excellent read for developers who want a detailed understanding of this important XML protocol. --Tim Anderson

Book Description

Understanding SOAP begins with a discussion of distributed object computing and review the current technologies. It then discusses the realities that make distributed object computing so difficult. Given these realities, the book then provides a case study of a current technology to show why it is so difficult to distribute objects and why a protocol, such as SOAP, is such an important topic. An in-depth example gives the reader a working scenario of what is involved with distributed object computing and SOAP. Finally, the book discusses the future of SOAP, to include language binding and system integration. This book provides readers with an accelerated approach to understanding how XML applies to distributed systems, specifically using the SOAP protocol.

See all Product Description

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good book on such an early stage technology, July 30 2001

By

ws__ (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding SOAP (Paperback)

This book contains actually too books: 1) A deep introduction to SOAP. 2) A description for a SOAP to DCOM to SOAP converting framework. ad 1) This book is a true must have for its description to SOAP. It shows the details in a clear and trustworthy stile. Also one gets a good impression on the impact of this technology without any hype. I am strongly looking forward to a new updated edition.

ad 2) This is hard stuff. You have to be reasonably well acquainted with DCOM at the ATL level. Some knowledge on Assembler is also more than helpful. The framework is ok, though incomplete. Yes it is a bargain at the price of the book and it is interesting to read through.

Should this be two separate books? I think so yes. Though than I would never have read the second book.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1.0 out of 5 stars Just another lousy computer book, April 17 2001

By

Richard Hassinger (Harvard, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding SOAP (Paperback)

This book is a difficult read. It's difficult because it's poorly written, it's difficult because it doesn't really say much, and it's especially difficult because after about an hour of trying to find something of value you will start getting very angry that you were ripped off. Supposedly this book should give you the information you need to "understand" SOAP. In fact, SOAP is not very complicated; it's XML messages flying back and forth via HTTP. It's like CORBA or RMI only text-based. But instead of getting this message across and exciting the reader about what can be done with the technology, the authors have chosen to write in the most boring, matter-of-factual language they could possibly utter. Worse, they bloat the pages with reams upon reams of C++ code. Not Java or C# or Visual Basic that most developers that would be interested in SOAP use, but C++. Each C++ segment is explained in painful detail by near-pseudocode text, no doubt to fill as many pages as possible but with the dreadful side-effect of boring the reader to tears. The chapters that try to "introduce" XML are particularly bad, dry and unintelligible. In fact, it almost seems as if the authors didn't understand XML themselves, which seems hard to believe since Stiver claims to have spent two years with it. Perhaps it's just really bad writing style, or really bad attention to detail, or just a great deal of pressure from the publisher to get something, anything, out and onto the shelves. The result is a worthless white book that should no be any part of a web developer's library.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars technology for web applications, April 1 2001

By

Daniel Mall (San Gabriel, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Understanding SOAP (Paperback)

Excellent presentation of fundamental SOAP technology in chapters 1-7 (193 pages). Explains how the SOAP protocol and request/response model can be used in web applications. Compares SOAP with CORBA and DCOM. Illustrates the contents of SOAP request and response messages. Presents an ISAPI extension for monitoring SOAP traffic (debugging & development). Defines XML content of SOAP messages and shows how to package data types using XML types including base64 for data structures. Introduces approaches for managing state-information in a SOAP based application. Chapter 8 explains how Microsoft's BizTalk Server uses SOAP technology. Briefly discusses the philosophy of Microsoft's SOAP toolkit. Chapter 10 presents code for creating a transparent framework for COM objects which are unaware of SOAP to be called through the SOAP protocol. Chapter 10 covers at least 1/3 of the book, is difficult to understand, consists primarily of code, and occasionally drops into assembly language for unexplained reasons.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews 3.1 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Absence of java examples frustrating
This book is basically Microsoft propaganda for their Biztalk.

If you do MS Biztalk and use exclusively MS tools, this is your book. Read more

Published on Feb 21 2001 by Owen Corpening

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but includes fluff and time sensitive material
The SOAP standard is a new standard based on XML intended to provide a mechanism for distributing objects over the Internet. Read more