最近几年来，地理信息系统无论是在理论上还是应用上都处在一个飞速发展的阶段。 GIS被应用于多个领域的建模和决策支持，如城市管理、区划、环境整治等等，地理信息成为信息时代重要的组成部分之一； “数字地球”概念的提出，更进一步推动了作为其技术支撑的GIS的发展。 与此同时，一些学者致力于相关的理论研究，如空间感知、空间数据误差、空间关系的形式化等等。 这恰好说明了地理信息系统作为应用技术和学科的两个方面，并且这两个方面构成了相互促进的发展过程。
SOAP is a simple XML-based protocol that enables applications to exchange information through HTTP.
Or simply put: SOAP is a communication protocol between Web Services based on XML. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a platform-neutral and language-neutral lightweight communication protocol that enables programs to communicate through the standard Internet HTTP. To learn more about SOAP, please read our SOAP tutorial. In May 2000, SOAP 1.1 was recommended to the W3C (by developers: IBM, Lotus, Microsoft and Userland) in a record as a protocol for exchanging information in a distributed environment. The W3C SOAP 1.1 document is just a NOTE for discussion. The release of thisrecord does not represent any degree of W3C approval. The W3C XML Protocol working Group is currently working on SOAP 1.2 The first working draft was issued on December 17, 2001. SOAP 1.2 was released as a W3C recommendation on June 24, 2003. Standard Draft / proposal Recommended time SOAP 1.2 Primer Jun 2003 SOAP 1.2 Primer (2.Ed) Apr 2007 SOAP 1.2 Messaging Jun 2003 SOAP 1.2 Messaging (2.Ed) Apr 2007 SOAP 1.2 Adjuncts Jun 2003 SOAP 1.2 Adjuncts (2.Ed) Apr 2007 SOAP 1.2 Test Collection Jun 2003 SOAP 1.2 Test Collection (2.Ed) Apr 2007 SOAP 1.2 Attachments Jun 2004 SOAP 1.2 Email Bindings Jul 2002 SOAP 1.2 Normalization Oct 2003 SOAP 1.2 Serialization Jun 2004 Web Services Addressing 1.0-Core May 2006 Web Services Addressing 1.0-SOAP May 2006 4.13.1. SOAP ¶
4.13.2. SOAP 1.1 ¶
4.13.3. SOAP 1.2 ¶
4.13.4. W3C SOAP specification and timeline ¶