With SOAP messaging, WSE supports a flexible and lightweight mechanism for sending and receiving SOAP messages. This mechanism allows applications to switch between the TCP and HTTP transport protocols relatively easily. When the TCP transport protocol is used, the SOAP messages can be sent and received without using a Web server. A Web server, which only handles HTTP requests, operates based upon the HTTP specification requirement that every HTTP request receive an HTTP response. This request/response model is not always necessary when sending messages; a SOAP message sender might need to send several messages and may not need or expect any return SOAP messages. The SOAP messaging in WSE accommodates this type of messaging, while still allowing developers to take advantage of the other features of WSE, such as digital signature and encryption support.

- posted by Pop @ 9:47 AM