May 27, 2021 W3C Standard
SOAP is a simple XML-based protocol that enables applications to exchange information over HTTP.
Or simply: SOAP is an XML-based communication protocol between Web Services.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a platform- and language-neutral lightweight communication protocol that allows programs to communicate over standard Internet HTTP.
To learn more about SOAP, read our SOAP tutorial.
In May 2000, SOAP 1.1 was recommended to W3C (by developers: IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, and Userland) as a protocol for exchanging information in a distributed environment.
The W3C SOAP 1.1 document is only a record for discussion (NOTE). The publication of this record does not represent any degree of W3C's endorsement of it.
W3C's XML Protocol team is currently working on SOAP 1.2
The first draft work was published on December 17, 2001.
SOAP 1.2 was released as the W3C recommendation on June 24, 2003.
| Specification | Draft/proposal | Recommended time |
|---|---|---|
| SOAP 1.2 Primer | 24. Jun 2003 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Primer (2.Ed) | 27. Apr 2007 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Messaging | 24. Jun 2003 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Messaging (2.Ed) | 27. Apr 2007 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Adjuncts | 24. Jun 2003 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Adjuncts (2.Ed) | 27. Apr 2007 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Test Collection | 24. Jun 2003 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Test Collection (2.Ed) | 27. Apr 2007 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Attachments | 08. Jun 2004 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Email Bindings | 03. Jul 2002 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Normalization | 08. Oct 2003 | |
| SOAP 1.2 Serialization | 08. Jun 2004 | |
| Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Core | 09. May 2006 | |
| Web Services Addressing 1.0 - SOAP | 09. May 2006 |