What Is Simple Object Access Protocol(SOAP)?

Simple Object Access Protocol proposed by Microsoft provides a way for applications to communicate with each other over the Internet, independent of platform. Unlike 110P, SOAP piggy-
backs a DOM onto HTTP (port 80) in order to penetrate server firewalls, which are usually configured to accept port 80 and port 21 (FTP) requests. SOAP relies on XML to define the format of the information and then adds the necessary HTTP headers to send it.