Introduction

The Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the current paradigm in which one type of software communicates with another software written in a different language and exchanges information. In a service-oriented design, we have a service provider that provides a particular service. Web service technology is not specific to SAP.

For a Web service, a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) file exists that contains the necessary information required in calling the Web service in question, such as the input and the output parameters (that is, the interface). The information about the necessary input and output parameters for Web service call is specified using the WSDL. The WSDL and the SOAP and HTTP are universal concepts and therefore allow SAP integration with the outside world.

There is a registry called UDDI (acronym for Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration ) where the service provider may be registered and the necessary information about the service is stored. The...