Specifying an ISAPI Listener

Other versions of this page are also available for the following:

• Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3

8/28/2008

In most cases, the Internet Server API (ISAPI) listener is the best choice because it gives better performance.

If the listener is receiving SOAP messages and passing them to the SOAP drivers, an ISAPI listener is the choice.

If you want the server to process the incoming SOAP messages before passing them to the SOAP drivers, you need an Active Server Pages (ASP) listener.

To specify an ISAPI listener, you must identify a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file as the handler of incoming SOAP requests, as shown in bold in the following WSDL syntax example.

<definitions>
...
  <service name='Calc' >
    <port name='CalcSoapPort' binding='wsdlns:CalcSoapBinding' >
      <soap:address location=' />
    </port>
  </service>
...
</definitions>

Specifying a WSDL file as the SOAP message handler invokes an ISAPI handler (soapisap.dll).

The ISAPI handler does the following:

• Loads the WSDL and Web Services Meta Language (WSML) files
• Executes the operation or operations specified in the SOAP request
• Returns the resulting SOAP response to the client

The ISAPI handler (soapisap.dll) eliminates the need for an ASP handler on the server.

When specifying the ISAPI handler, you can use the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSOAP\SOAPISAP registry key to change the default setting. For more information, see SOAP Registry Settings.

The ISAPI handler is configured through the registry. For more information, see SOAP Registry Settings.

See Also

Concepts

Server-Side Data Flow
A Quick Introduction to WSDL
A Quick Introduction to WSML