15
Introduction
SOAP and Web Services
The basis for most current models of web services is the Extensible Markup Language
(XML), which facilitates interoperability by permitting the exchange of information
between applications and platforms in a text-based manner. The Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) is an XML-based messaging protocol used as a medium for information
and instruction exchange between web services. Information sent using the SOAP standard
is placed in a file called a SOAP envelope. The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is
an XML-based standard for describing web services and their capabilities. Acrobat’s
support for these standards makes it possible for PDF documents to locate services,
understand their capabilities, and interact with them.
In order to guarantee interoperability between various platforms and applications, it is
necessary to exchange information that adheres to a standardized format for data types. To
address this need, the XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) provides a standard set of
definitions for the various data types that can be exchanged in SOAP envelopes.
Acrobat 7.0 provides support for the SOAP 1.1 and 1.2 standards in order to enable PDF
forms to communicate with web services. This support has made it possible to include both
SOAP header and body information, send binary data more efficiently, use document/literal
encoding, and facilitate authenticated or encrypted communications. In addition, it also
provides the ability to locate network services using DNS Service Discovery. All of this
makes it possible to integrate PDF files into existing workflows by binding XML forms to
schemas, databases, and web services. These workflows include the ability to share
comments remotely or invoke web services through form field actions.
Chapter Goals
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
Understand the support available for the SOAP standards.
Connect to a web service.
Exchange information with a web service.
Search and manage XML-based information.
Use DNS Service Discovery to locate network services.
Understand how to apply Acrobat’s SOAP support to various workflows.
Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Guide
243
Pages: Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280