publisher provides TCP/IP socket service that listens for incoming XML requests from remote clients. Any XML received on the TCP/IP server socket is sent on the request port. Any XML posted to the reply port during execution of the request port will be sent as a reply to the remote client. The publisher component works in conjunction with a subscriber component and without a subscriber does not function in a useful way. Only one publisher is allowed on a particular port but any number of publishers are allowed as long as they are assigned unique ports. All publishers will publish to all subscribers.