Chapter 2. HTTP and XML Basics

The web-services technologies described in this book are built primarily from XML and HTTP. While toolkits don't demand an intimate knowledge of these techniques, having a basic understanding of these low-level elements will lead to better grasp of the more complex concepts presented later in this book.

This chapter presents overviews of HTTP (with some discussion of HTTP/S), XML, and a little coverage of the XML Schema language. The goal of this chapter is to present these topics if you aren't yet familiar with them, without straying too far from the main focus of the book. The discussion of these concepts will focus on their application to XML-RPC and SOAP, with references to other books and web sites if you want to learn more.