Soap on target to become next XML standard protocol

Microsoft is placed as the strongest contender to claim the next XML standard protocol. Simple Object Access Protocol (Soap) version 1.1 is a joint development protocol from Microsoft, Userland Software and DevelopMentor and is touted as a universal standard for linking business-to-business applications and services between companies.

Microsoft is placed as the strongest contender to claim the next XML standard protocol. Simple Object Access Protocol (Soap) version 1.1 is a joint development protocol from Microsoft, Userland Software and DevelopMentor and is touted as a universal standard for linking business-to-business applications and services between companies.

The World Wide Web Consortium will decide whether to select Soap in the next few weeks. Its decision may be influenced by support from major players IBM, HP, Ariba, Compaq, Lotus and Commerce One.

The technology behind Soap is a framework for describing what is an XML message and how to process it with a set of rules for expressing specifics in the data types and a feature for representing remote procedure calls and responses.

John Montgomery, product manager at Microsoft, said: "Internet applications don't have a native way of richly communicating with each other. The key to these protocols is they are open and anyone can build on top of them and implement them."

There is some competition for the standard, but Meta Group analyst Nicholas Gall said: "It looks as if Soap will be the chosen vehicle for XML."

He added that although it was surprising to see such consolidation among vendors, "there are so many companies supporting Soap, there isn't really another option."

But the co-developers of Soap are eager not to let Microsoft steal the limelight. Noah Mendelsohn of Lotus and a co-author of Soap 1.1 dismissed Soap as a Microsoft only development. He said: "This is not at all a bunch of other companies signing on to a Microsoft technology."