SOAP Message Example

To illustrate what SOAP messages look like, we'll show an example of a web service used by an online retailer that accepts a unique product identifier and returns details about the product such as the name, description, price, and availability. Listing B-7 shows an example of such a service called GetProductDetails that accepts one parameter called ProductID. The Envelope namespace will always point to http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope, as described in the specification.

Example. Sample SOAP Request Message from a Client

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <soap:Body>
     <getProductDetails xmlns="http://www.quickreturns.com/ws">
       <productID>5820948</productID>
     </getProductDetails>
   </soap:Body>
 </soap:Envelope>

The response from the service also has the same structure of an envelope with the two headers. Listing B-8 shows an example of what the response of the previous GetProductDetails will contain. In this example, the service sends some additional attributes such as Product Name, Description, Price, and a Boolean stating whether the product is in stock.

Example. Sample Response SOAP Message from a Server

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <soap:Body>
     <getProductDetailsResponse xmlns="http://www.quickreturns.com/ws">
       <getProductDetailsResult>
         <productName>Wireless Keyboard</productName>
         <productID>123321</productID>
         <description>RF Wireless Keyboard, available in Black</description>
         <price>96.50</price>
         <inStock>true</inStock>
       </getProductDetailsResult>
     </getProductDetailsResponse>
   </soap:Body>
 </soap:Envelope>