what is soap in php

[AARTI SHRIVAS]

the interviwever ask me one more question about soap in php can any budy tell me what is this i am really don't know about it?

[oop_php]

SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol.

Normally, this is heavily use in exchanging XML data server to server. However, we now have cURL and many excellent and well developed API that can handle most of the functions offered by SOAP. Although there are SOAP API developed like the decibel API, I don't see much any relevance of it in today's applications.

I hate saying this, but I think this is just getting too old. I thought when SOAP came out at first, I was the one living in Plato's cave, but now I think SOAP is heading inside the cave. But then, they came up with the so called "nusoap", but I am not even sure if this will ever work on the latest version of PHP.

Example of SOAP implementation with the decibel API.. this is normally intended for some kind of photo album :) geez..

function albumQuery($title, $applicationID, $userSessionID)
{
        // Must specify 'features' parameter otherwise array results are not consistent: 
        // http://eirikhoem.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/array-problems-with-soap-and-php-updated/
        $client = new SoapClient("http://localhost/Decibel?wsdl", array('features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS));

    $query->Name = $title;
    $query->NameFindType = "Normalized";
    $query->RetrievalDepth = "ImageThumbnail"; // Retrieve thumbnails for each album.
    $query->PageSize = 50;

    $queries = array(
            $query
    );

    $result = $client->AlbumQuery(array('decibelAppID'=>$applicationID, 'sessionID'=>$userSessionID
                            , 'queries'=>$queries
                            ));

    return $result->AlbumQueryResult->AlbumQueryResult[0]->ResultSet;
    }

Looking at the implementation above, we can easily recreate it just by simply using cURL and few lines of PHP codes for re-iteration. If logging in , and passing account credentials is the main reasons for implementing SOAP, I still believe cURL and jason can do it with extreme effeciency..

[AARTI SHRIVAS]

@opp php
so soap is not in use?
and i only know the core php how can i lear new things i google all the things but so many topic are out of my way can anyone help me out to lean new things and technology in php to get expertise in php