The gSOAP toolkit is used by top Fortune 100 companies world wide, including the top 5 technology companies. Speed, reliability and flexibility, coupled with a proven track record and used by some of the largest technology vendors makes it an ideal platform to develop applications using Web services and XML processing. Applications include embedded systems, mobile devices, telecommunications, routers, online games, Web TV, banking systems, auction systems, news outlets, network management systems, grid and cloud computing platforms, and security software. See for example success stories.
The gSOAP toolkit offers a comprehensive and transparent C/C++ XML data binding solution through autocoding techniques. This saves developers substantial time to implement SOAP/XML Web services in C/C++. In addition, the use of XML data bindings significantly simplifies the use of XML in applications by automatically mapping XML to C/C++ data types. Application developers no longer need to adjust the application logic to specific libraries and XML-centric data representations such as DOM.
The toolkit is compliant with WS-I Basic Profile 1.0a, 1.1, and 1.2, passed W3C Databinding interoperability testing, and interoperates with other SOAP stacks such as WCF, .NET, and Axis. Highlights are support for addressing and security protocols, streaming attachments (MTOM, MIME, DIME) for efficient binary transfers. Transfer over HTTP(S), TCP/UDP, and other transport protocols is supported using convenient plugins (or user-defined callbacks in case you want to override the I/O).
The gSOAP toolkit implements an ANSI C and C++ XML data binding through the use of compiler technologies. These technologies map XML schemas to C/C++ definitions and vice versa. There are two main advantages to this approach. Firstly, strong typing ensures safe use of typed data in your application and also guarantees that the XML data has passed XML parsing validation. Secondly, compiler-based schema-specific parsing and validation is more efficient than most other XML parsing techniques.
The gSOAP toolkit also consumes and generates WSDL and XML schemas (XSD). It maps existing C/C++ data types and application functions to WSDL, thereby supporting and simplifying the conversion of legacy code into Web services. Code portability has been achieved for many platforms, including embedded systems and real-time software.
Getting Started: a quick how-to tutorial on gSOAP.Fact Sheet: a quick overview of key features.
Licensing: open source licensing model.
Download: get started today.
Analysis of gSOAP source code (GPL version) available on Ohloh by Black Duck.
Released gSOAP 2.8.12 with WSDL 2.0 support and other enhancements. An important fix is available for an OpenSSL crash in the client-side host check. The crash is caused by changes in the OpenSSL API .
Due to popular demand for supporting the ONVIF specifications, we are providing recommendations in the FAQ under "How do use gSOAP for the ONVIF specifications?". Also, Genivia Inc offers support services, just in case.
Released gSOAP 2.8.9 with iOS plugin and examples, WCF-interoperable examples, and WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-Security updates.
Erwin Zwart from GuruCE writes onHosting webservices on Windows Embedded Compact using gSOAP: Uploading a file. See the February 2011 entry below for more details on gSOAP on Windows CE.
Released 2.8.4 with WS-Discovery support, a Tandem NonStop bridge, and several other enhancements. In addition, another gSOAP package is available to support HP NonStop.
The gSOAP "XML-RPC-JSON" all-in-one solution allows XML-RPC to be used in combination with JSON in the gSOAP 2.8.3 release. XML-RPC data can be serialized in JSON and vice versa without additional coding. An XML-RPC update with JSON is available here for all pre-2.8.3 releases.
Jon Scobie put together an overview and walk-through of the gSOAP Apache module Brain dump or brain washed?.
Read more about hosting web services on Windows Embedded Compact devices using gSOAP on Windows CE from the experts at GuruCE.
The WS4D-gSOAP Web Services for devices project brings Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services technology to the application domains of industrial automation, home entertainment, automotive systems and telecommunication systems.
Nokia article on gSOAP for Symbian: Using gSOAP for Web services. The article is intended for Symbian S60 device developers, but the article is really much more generic and useful to everyone.
SOAP NonStop Tandem support for C/C++ XML Web services is available in the form of a plugin-based bridge for gSOAP. Developers interested in this technology can contact the gSOAP developers, see here how to find us.
New Apache mod project: mod_wscpp for Apache web server integration of gSOAP services.
News for iPhone and iPad developers that rely on gSOAP for XML and Web services coding: the much-debated Section 3.3.1 that Apple changed does not affect gSOAP usage. In fact, it may be a good reason to stick to gSOAP for native C and C++ code, rather than switching to a cross-platform toolkit to cross-compile from a different development platform or programming language (which is no longer allowed for applications developed for the iPhone and iPad). I plan to compile a user guide for gSOAP for the iPhone/iPad specializing on the use of NSSocket (recommended) instead of BSD sockets and other helpful things.
Released gSOAP 2.7.16. This release includes WS-ReliableMessaging, a new auto-test server code generation feature (soapcpp2 option -T), enhanced examples and documentation, and new features such as "colon notation" to bind namespace prefixes to C/C++ names.
The WS-I 1.1 and 1.2 basic profile reports are updated. See the reports.
As an educator I came across the book "Web Services: Principles and Technology" by Michael P. Papazoglou. I highly recommend it for its comprehensive examination of Web services and related technologies.
Web Services Without Pain: gSOAP Writes Your XML, SOAP, and RPC. Short article shows the merits of gSOAP to generate SOAP/XML applications: "gSOAP can literally shave weeks and many thousands of dollars off of the cost of developing new server-client software."
MultiXTpm is an Application Server, Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) and Transaction Processing (TP) Monitor. It provides the runtime environment and rich API for developing large, scalable distributed applications for OLTP. The MultiXTpm gSoap enhancer addsfunctionality on top of gSoap and MultiXTpm.
The W3C Databinding Interoperability Results are available, with gSOAP stats included thanks to Hugo Haas and the W3C XML Schema Patterns for Databinding Interoperability working group. The mission of the working group is to determine the coverage of XML schema constructs by data binding tools for programming languages and frameworks, which will tell implementors in the relevant domain which parts of schema users are most likely to expect them to support well. Update: we are pleased to report that gSOAP 2.7.17 passes 100% of the 294 tests, which sets it clearly apart from the other tools. The gSOAP auto-test echo server is included in the 2.7.17 package.
XML Journal SYS-CON article comparing gSOAP to other C/C++ Web services toolkits: Exposing SOA Enabled C Apps as Web Services by Mohit Chawla and Vijaya Bhaskar Peddinti.
Interested in using gSOAP Web service with UIQ 3 phones? Read Web services for UIQ 3 and gSOAP tutorial by Sony/Ericsson.
Read an introduction to gSOAP by Bo Xie from IBM with build instructions for MSVC++ 6.0: Use gSOAP to consume J2EE Web services created by WSAD through HTTP and HTTPS.
SOA World Magazine SYS-CON article on Leveraging gSOAP for Legacy Systems Integration by James Caple.
Surpassed 100,000 gSOAP toolkit downloads from SourceForge since 2003!
Pascal Botte shows how Lego Mindstorms fans can access the Lego RCX brick with gSOAP Web services. The new Lego Mindstorms NXT has arrived!
Are Web services scale free? Find out.
A recent patent granted to Microsoft on "XML Serialization" has caused some commotion, see XML serialization patent and prior art. The basis of the gSOAP software pre-dates Microsoft's XML serialization patent and is thus considered prior art: Gunjan Gupta's Master's project conducted in my research lab implemented an XML serialization algorithm in a compiler we developed for C, based on a SOAP and XML mapping that we developed in 1999. The project report TR-001205 was filed in the Department of Computer Science in 2000 before Microsoft's patent was filed. Shows that it is good we lead rather than follow (the Web services technology).
A feature article on gSOAP appeared in
Linux Magazine for the Linux (and gSOAP!) enthousiasts in France.
See our feature article gSOAP & Web services in the C/C++ Users Journal February issue on Web Services and C++!
The gSOAP toolkit received a five star rating in all categories in a recent survey study of C++ Web services tools: see CRN survey article for more details.
iAnywhere/AvantGo are using gsoap for their M-Business Anywhere server. M-Business Anywhere provides a platform for delivering Web-based content and applications to a wide variety of mobile devices rapidly and cost-effectively with minimal recoding.
The release of Borland C++BuilderX 1.5 brings several new solutions for Symbian OS including the first, native C++, Rapid Application Development (RAD) support. A port of gSOAP will ease the job of enterprise developers who want to use Web Services to mobilize corporate data to Symbian OS phones. Read more.
New WSDL tools (WSDL parser, import, and generator) are released as part of the gSOAP 2.4 releases. The new WSDL parser includes many enhancements for developing SOAP 1.1/1.2 RPC, literal encoding, and document style Web services.
IBM released the IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business. The Tivoli Access Manager is an award winning, policy-based access control solution for e-business and enterprise applications. Part of the Tivoli Access Manager uses gSOAP.
The OFACSearch application developed with gSOAP by the Oasis Group is used to help companies comply with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations.
Adobe's Version Cue, an innovative file-management feature of the recently unveiled Adobe Creative Suite, uses gSOAP as the foundation of its SOAP services client.
The BEA WebLogic Enterprise Security product line is family of security solutions that provide enhanced application security that includes policy-based delegated administration, authentication with single sign-on, consolidated auditing, and dynamic-role and policy-based authorization with delegation. Part of this product uses the gSOAP library.
Foundstone 3.0 Professional, an advanced network security analysis and protection tool, uses gSOAP as part of its data communication framework.
ObjectStore released its Real-Time Event Engine 3.0, a high-performance application solution for the real-time capture, organization and simultaneous query of streaming financial event data. The Event Engine combines extreme scalability with a flexible "Cache-Forward" architecture to support real-time analysis on streaming event data in distributed environments, without impacting capture or query speeds. The Real-Time Event Engine is based on gSOAP.
The AOL 9.0 YGP (You've Got Pictures) team used gSOAP to provide the foundation for the SOAP services client included in the AOL 9.0 product.
PalmSource in partnership with IBM offers a Web Services Toolkit for Mobile
Devices based on gSOAP.
read more...
CapeClear article on Web Services for C and C++ Applications.
The next section explains how these tools are used to build client and server applications.
We use the gSOAP 'wsdl2h' WSDL parser to obtain the gSOAP header file specification of a Web service from a WSDL document.
To obtain a header file from a WSDL document, run 'wsdl2h' on a
WSDL:
| wsdl2h -o outfile.h infile.wsdl |
| wsdl2h -o XMethodsQuery.h http://www.xmethods.net/wsdl/query.wsdl |
Next, we run the gSOAP compiler 'soapcpp2'
on the gSOAP header file to produce the source code to implement the client
application.
The 'soapcpp2' stub and skeleton compiler generates proxies (and RPC stubs) for your client
application, as illustrated below.
To develop a service application, run the gSOAP 'wsdl2h' parser on a
WSDL to create a gSOAP header file. The header file is compiled with
the 'soapcpp2' compiler:
|
| wsdl2h -c -o quote.h http://services.xmethods.net/soap/urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes.wsdl |
|
//gsoap ns1 service name: net_DOTxmethods_DOTservices_DOTstockquote_DOTStockQuoteBinding
//gsoap ns1 service type: net_DOTxmethods_DOTservices_DOTstockquote_DOTStockQuotePortType //gsoap ns1 service port: http://66.28.98.121:9090/soap //gsoap ns1 service namespace: urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes //gsoap ns1 service documentation: Definitions generated by the gSOAP WSDL parser 1.0 // Service net.xmethods.services.stockquote.StockQuoteService : net.xmethods.services.stockquote.StockQuote web service //gsoap ns1 service method-style: getQuote rpc //gsoap ns1 service method-encoding: getQuote http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/ //gsoap ns1 service method-action: getQuote urn:xmethods-delayed-quotes#getQuote int ns1__getQuote(char *symbol, float &Result); |
Because the name of the service is a bit lengthy, we rename it in the header file into
something simpler for sake of convenience:
| //gsoap ns1 service name: Quote |
The gSOAP stub and skeleton compiler is invoked on this quote.h header file from
within an IDE (e.g. MSVC++ or Borland C++), from a makefile, or from the command line with:
| soapcpp2 -c quote.h |
The following function is generated by the gSOAP compiler:
| int soap_call_ns1__getQuote(struct soap *soap, char *URL, char *action, char *symbol, float &Result); |
The following C client program invokes the proxy to retrieve
the latest IBM stock quote from the XMethods Delayed Stock Quote service:
| #include "soapH.h" // obtain the generated stub
#include "Quote.nsmap" // obtain the generated XML namespace mapping table for the Quote service main() { struct soap *soap = soap_new(); float quote; if (soap_call_ns1__getQuote(soap, NULL, NULL, "IBM", quote) == SOAP_OK) printf("Current IBM Stock Quote = %g\n", quote); else // an error occurred soap_print_fault(soap, stderr); // display the SOAP fault on the stderr stream } |
|
#include "soapQuoteProxy.h" // get proxy #include "Quote.nsmap" // get namespace bindings int main() { Quote q; float r; if (q.ns1__getQuote("IBM", r) == SOAP_OK) std::cout << r << std::endl; else soap_print_fault(q.soap, stderr); return 0; } |
| // Contents of file "calc.h":
//gsoap ns service name: calculator //gsoap ns service style: rpc //gsoap ns service encoding: encoded //gsoap ns service port: http://mydomain/path/calculator.cgi //gsoap ns service namespace: urn:calculator int ns__add(double a, double b, double &result); int ns__sub(double a, double b, double &result); int ns__sqrt(double a, double &result); |
The add and sub methods are intended to add and subtract two double floating point numbers stored in input parameters a and b and return the result of the operation in the result output parameter. The sqrt method is intended to take the square root of input parameter a and to return the result in the output parameter result.
The gSOAP stub and skeleton compiler is invoked on this calc.h header file from
within an IDE (e.g. MSVC++ or Borland C++), from a makefile, or from the command line with:
| soapcpp2 calc.h |
The compiler generates the skeleton routines and a WSDL description
of the service. Here is an example Calculator service application that
uses the generated skeletons. The soap_serve routine handles client
requests:
| // Contents of file "calc.cpp":
#include "soapH.h" #include "calculator.nsmap" #include <math.h> main() { soap_serve(soap_new()); // call the incoming remote method request dispatcher } // Implementation of the "add" remote method: int ns__add(struct soap *soap, double a, double b, double &result) { result = a + b; return SOAP_OK; } // Implementation of the "sub" remote method: int ns__sub(struct soap *soap, double a, double b, double &result) { result = a - b; return SOAP_OK; } // Implementation of the "sqrt" remote method: int ns__sqrt(struct soap *soap, double a, double &result) { if (a >= 0) { result = sqrt(a); return SOAP_OK; } else { return soap_sender_fault(soap, "Square root of negative value", "I can only compute the square root of a non-negative value"); } } |
The implementation of the remote methods return a SOAP status code. The code SOAP_OK denotes success, while soap_sender_fault returns an exception. This application is intended to run as a CGI application at the specified location (http://mydomain/path/calculator.cgi). However, you can build a stand-alone HTTP/HTTPS Web server that serves regular dynamic HTML content and SOAP/XML Web services, see the gSOAP Web Server screen dump. You can also use Apache_mod, WinInet, IIS, or Fast CGI.