Application programming interface to the simple object access protocol

• US 6,904,600 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2000
• Issued: 06/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pather, Shyamalan, James, Sarita M.
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong, LeChi
• Application Number:
  US09/606,923
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: 719/328
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing an application programming interface (API) to the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) are described. The API provides mechanisms for creating all parts of SOAP request messages, for sending the created messages over HTTP to a remote server, and, if the request is successful, for retrieving the response from the remote server, or, in the case of failure, for accessing whatever error information is available. The information passed through the API can be in the form of parameters which allows both the SOAP protocol and the applications that use it to change without requiring changes to the API itself.

Claims

1. A method for an application to communicate with a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) software object, in order to communicate with a procedure on a remote server via the Simple Object Access Protocol, comprising the steps of:

issuing, by the application, a call to initialize the SOAP software object, said initialization including specifying the procedure on the remote server;

issuing, by the application, a call to set a body of a SOAP request to be used by the SOAP software object, using a set of parameters to specify said body;

issuing, by the application, a call to the SOAP software object, in order that the SOAP request be sent to the remote server;

issuing, by the application, a call to query the SOAP software object to obtain status information;

issuing, by the application, a call to query the SOAP software object to obtain response information sent from the procedure on the remote server; and

issuing, by the application, a call to set a header in the SOAP request to be used by the SOAP software object, including in said header a value for a mustUnderstand attribute.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the call to the SOAP software object, in order that the SOAP request be sent to the remote server, does not return until either response information is received from the remote server or a set amount of time passes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein issued calls are to methods of the SOAP software object.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of:

issuing, by the application, a call to instantiate the SOAP software object.

5. A method for communicating with a procedure on a remote server via SOAP, the method comprising:

initializing a SOAP software object, the initializing comprising specifying the procedure on the remote server;

using a set of parameters to specify a body of a SOAP request message to be used by the SOAP software object;

calling the SOAP software object to request that the SOAP request message be sent to the remote server;

querying the SOAP software object to obtain status information;

querying the SOAP software object to obtain response information sent from the procedure on the remote server; and

setting a header in the SOAP request message to be used by the SOAP software object, the setting of header comprising including in the header a value for a mustUnderstand attribute.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the calling to request that a SOAP request message be sent to the remote server does not return until either response information is received from the remote server or until a set amount of time passes.