Editing SOAP (section)

== Message format ==
[[XML Information Set]] was chosen as the standard message format because of its widespread use by major corporations and [[open-source model|open source]] development efforts. Typically, XML Information Set is [[Serialization|serialized]] as [[XML]]. A wide variety of freely available [[software development tool|tools]] significantly eases the transition to a SOAP-based implementation. The somewhat lengthy [[syntax]] of [[XML]] can be both a benefit and a drawback. While it facilitates error detection and avoids interoperability problems such as byte-order ([[endianness]]), it can slow processing speed and can be cumbersome. For example, [[CORBA]], [[General Inter-ORB Protocol|GIOP]], [[Internet Communications Engine|ICE]], and [[Distributed Component Object Model|DCOM]]<!--EDIFACT too :P--> use much shorter, binary message formats. On the other hand, hardware appliances are available to accelerate processing of [[XML]] messages.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/datapower/xa35/ |title=IBM Datapower |publisher=306.ibm.com |date=2011-11-30 |access-date=2012-10-04 |archive-date=2008-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622054818/http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/datapower/xa35/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.research.ibm.com/XML/IBM_Zurich_XML_Accelerator_Engine_paper_2004May04.pdf |title=IBM Zurich XML Accelerator Engine |access-date=2012-10-04 |archive-date=2012-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930202629/http://www.research.ibm.com/XML/IBM_Zurich_XML_Accelerator_Engine_paper_2004May04.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Binary XML]] is also being explored as a means for streamlining the throughput requirements of XML.
XML messages by their self-documenting nature usually have more 'overhead' (e.g., headers, nested tags, delimiters) than actual data in contrast to earlier protocols where the overhead was usually a relatively small percentage of the overall message.

In financial messaging SOAP was found to result in a 2&ndash;4 times larger message than previous protocols [[Financial Information eXchange|FIX]] (Financial Information Exchange) and [[Common Data Representation|CDR]] (Common Data Representation).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2003.org/cdrom/papers/alternate/P872/p872-kohlhoff.html |title=Evaluating SOAP for High Performance Business Applications: Real-Time Trading Systems |publisher=Tenermerx Pty Ltd University of Technology, Sydney |date=2011-11-30 |access-date=2013-03-14 |archive-date=2013-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810002005/http://www2003.org/cdrom/papers/alternate/P872/p872-kohlhoff.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

XML Information Set does not have to be serialized in XML. For instance, CSV and [[JSON]] XML-infoset representations exist. There is also no need to specify a generic transformation framework. The concept of SOAP bindings allows for specific bindings for a specific application. The drawback is that both the senders and receivers have to support this newly defined binding.