What is Difference between HTTP and SOAP?

[vsubbakrishna]

Hello all,

I am new to XI. Coud you please tell me the concepts of HTTP and SOAP say with some examples.

Also what is a WEBSERVICE, SOAP Sender and SOAP Receiver( Please explain Concepts ).

Thanks,

Subba

[former_member556603]

Hello Krishna,

SOAP Adapter

Purpose

The SOAP adapter enables you to exchange SOAP messages between remote clients or Web service servers and the Integration Server or the PCK.

In the SOAP adapter, you can specify security settings to be used to sign/verify the SOAP body. In addition, you can specify the standard to be used for signing/verifying the SOAP message.

For FAQs about the SOAP adapter, see SAP Note 856597.

Integration

You configure the adapter in the configuration part of the Integration Builder or the PCK.

The receiver SOAP adapter can be used for mapping lookups.

See also: Mapping Lookups

Features

● To be able to send SOAP messages to the Integration Server/PCK, you must configure the sender SOAP adapter.

● To be able to send SOAP messages from the Integration Server/PCK to remote clients or Web service servers, you must first configure the receiver SOAP adapter.

The receiver adapter supports system acknowledgments but not application acknowledgments.

● You have the option of using the Axis framework in the SOAP adapter.

HTTP

Purpose

The plain HTTP adapter gives application systems the option of communicating with the Integration Engine and exchanging business data using a plain HTTP connection. Depending on the receiver system, outbound messages can be enhanced with certain information.

Integration

The plain HTTP adapter is part of the Integration Engine. It comprises two parts, namely an adapter at the Integration Engine inbound channel and an adapter at the Integration Engine outbound channel.

For compatibility reasons, both the old XI message protocol (2.0) and the current XI message protocol (3.0) are supported at the inbound and outbound channel.

The adapter at the inbound channel is located before the Integration Engine pipeline and calls this pipeline. The adapter at the outbound channel is called by the pipeline, and can therefore be regarded as part of the pipeline. It requires a corresponding communication channel from the technical routing for each logical receiver.

A communication channel with a receiver HTTP adapter can be created automatically for business systems that are defined in the System Landscape Directory. See also: Creating Communication Channels Automatically

Features

The plain HTTP adapter is used by external systems to connect to the Integration Engine using the native HTTP interface (HTTP payload without SOAP envelope). These systems are connected using the Internet communication framework of the SAP Web Application Server. For this purpose, the Integration Engine HTTP inbound channel contains an HTTP service delivered by SAP, called /sap/xi/adapter_plain.

There are two usage types for the plain HTTP adapter:

● Synchronous processing

Ordering on the Internet with an order number as a response.

● Asynchronous processing

Ordering on the Internet without confirmation of the purchase.

In principle, both scenarios are possible at the Integration Engine HTTP inbound and outbound channels.

In special cases for particular external servers with CGI scripts, for example, marketplaces, it is possible to send the payload as an HTML form using HTTP post. The payload is enhanced correspondingly. For example, the content type is included in the payload.

SOAP Sender:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/fc/5ad93f130f9215e10000000a155106/content.htm

SOAP Receiver:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/5d/112d20f6ce6c46ba66afb98d278fbd/content.htm

Since your scenario is synchronous, You can use RFC adapter as sender side and SOAP adapter as Receiver side.

/people/shabarish.vijayakumar/blog/2006/03/23/rfc--xi--webservice--a-complete-walkthrough-part-1

/people/shabarish.vijayakumar/blog/2006/03/28/rfc--xi--webservice--a-complete-walkthrough-part-2

/people/shabarish.vijayakumar/blog/2008/01/08/troubleshooting--rfc-and-soap-scenarios-updated-on-20042009

/people/michal.krawczyk2/blog/2005/03/29/configuring-the-sender-rfc-adapter--step-by-step

Thanks,

Satay Kumar

[Former Member]

HI,

Main difference is HTTP is resides on ABAP stach hence u can not monitor HTTP adapter through RWB. FOr HTTP u dont require sender agreeement and sender communication channel.

where as

SOAP adapter resides on java stach hence u can monitor the status of SOAP adapter.

chirag

[vsubbakrishna]

Thanks for info.

[Former Member]

hi subbu,

SOAP and HTTP are both communication protocols. But SOAP is messaging protocol concerned with packaging of messages in XML protocol and transfer then using HTTP .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP

HTTP is used solely used to transfer information over the internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP

You can get much more information over internet.

Regards

Ramesh P