SOAP: The SOAP protocol plays an enormously important role in the implementation
of Web Services. This section discusses its advantages and introduces
PHP??™s SOAP extension, which was made available with the version 5 release.
Why Web Services?
Although the typical developer generally adheres to a loosely defined set of practices and
tools, much as an artist generally works with a particular medium and style, he tends
to create software in the way he sees most fit. As such, it doesn??™t come as a surprise
that although many programs resemble one another in look and behavior, the similarities
largely stop there. Numerous deficiencies arise as a result of this refusal to
follow generally accepted programming principles, with software being developed at
a cost of maintainability, scalability, extensibility, and interoperability.
This problem of interoperability has become even more pronounced over the past
few years, given the incredible opportunities for cooperation that the Internet has
opened up to businesses around the world. However, fully exploiting an online business
partnership often, if not always, involves some level of system integration. Therein
lies the problem: if the system designers never consider the possibility that they might
one day need to tightly integrate their application with another, how will they ever really
be able to exploit the Internet to its fullest advantage? Indeed, this has been a subject
of considerable discussion almost from the onset of this new electronic age.
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