SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a one-way message exchange specification that provides a framework that information specific to applications can be exchanged in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP does not specify an underlying protocol, effectively allowing other exchange paradigms such as request with multiple responses to be dictated either by the transport protocol or the application. Version 1.2 was released on June 26, 2002. (http://www.w3c.org/)
