XML Reference Guide

Mar 14, 2003

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Technically speaking, "Web Services" doesn't refer to any particular form of message being sent over the Internet, but one of the most common (and the way things are going, the most standardized) type of messages is the SOAP message. Early versions of SOAP stood for Simple Object Access Protocol, but with Version 1.2, currently a Candidate Recommendation at the W3C, the acronym has been dropped. Whatever you want to call it, however, it pays to understand how SOAP messages are constructed.

Consider the example of a Web service in which a client can place an order for hyperdrive engines. The message has to contain all of the information the engine company needs to process the order:

<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2002/12/soap-envelope"> 
 <env:Header>
    <orderinfo:customer xmlns:orderinfo="http://www.example.com/enginesinc/customers">
        <orderinfo:custId>DWDD39928</orderinfo:custId>
        <orderinfo:payMethod>PO</orderinfo:payMethod>
        <orderinfo:refNumber>PPSI998</orderinfo:refNumber>
   </orderinfo:customer>
</env:Header>
<env:Body>
    <order:action type="add" xmlns:order="http://www.example.com/enginesinc/orders">
        <order:itemId>XJ443</order:itemId>
        <order:itemPrice>383902</order:itemPrice>
        <order:itemQty>3</order:itemQty>
    </order:action>
</env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

Here we have XML data in three different namespaces. First, we have the SOAP message itself, consisting of an Envelope element containing a Body and an optional Header. The structure of the message itself is up to you and will be determined by the application that you build to process it, but in general the Header element contains information about the request, while the Body contains the message itself, also known as the payload.

The SOAP specification doesn't mandate any particular structure within the Header or Body elements; that's up to your application. What it does is specify attributes that control the way the message is treated by any system through which it passes. For example, A SOAP message will typically pass through one or more intermediaries between its initial departure from the ultimate sender and its receipt by the ultimate receiver. Each of these intermediaries can process the message, if the role is set for it.

For example, we could set up the message so that the marketing department gets notification that one of their advertisements has actually resulted in a sale by adding an element to the Header:

<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2002/12/soap-envelope"> 
 <env:Header>
    <marketing:activity xmlns:marketing="http://www.example.com/enginesinc/marketing"
           env:role="http://www.w3.org/2002/12/soap-envelope/role/next"
           env:mustUnderstand="true">
        <marketing:source>HyperDrive Today</marketing:source>
    </marketing:activity>
    <orderinfo:customer xmlns:orderinfo="http://www.example.com/enginesinc/customers">
        <orderinfo:custId>DWDD39928</orderinfo:custId>
        <orderinfo:payMethod>PO</orderinfo:payMethod>
        <orderinfo:refNumber>PPSI998</orderinfo:refNumber>
   </orderinfo:customer>
</env:Header>
<env:Body>
    <order:action type="add" xmlns:order="http://www.example.com/enginesinc/orders">
        <order:itemId>XJ443</order:itemId>
        <order:itemPrice>383902</order:itemPrice>
        <order:itemQty>3</order:itemQty>
    </order:action>
</env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

In this case, a system encountering the message that has been assigned a role of intermediary would process the marketing:activity element because it has a role of http://www.w3.org/2002/12/soap-envelope/role/next, and then remove the marketing:activity element and its contents before passing the message on to its intended receiver. (If desired, it could re-insert the element if it were needed by future intermediaries or the ultimate receiver.) The env:mustUnderstand attribute tells the intermediary that if it can't process this element, it must return a fault, or an error, rather than simply passing the message on. (SOAP also defines a env:relay attribute that, when set to true, tells the system not to remove the element if it hasn't been processed.)

SOAP messages generally come in two different "styles". Some, such as the example here, use the "conversational" style, in which information is simply conveyed, and the application deals with it accordingly. In other cases, you might opt for the "RPC" style, in which case you are requesting a particular action be performed with particular parameters. For example, if this example were in the RPC style, we would be requesting that the action() method be executed with an itemId parameter of XJ443 an itemPrice parameter of 383902, and an itemQty parameter of 3.

Because they are simply XML text, SOAP messages can be sent using virtually any protocol. For example, with the proper headers, the message can be sent within the body of an HTTP POST request, or as the body of anv email.

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