Re: Processing model

* Doug Davis <dug@us.ibm.com> [2001-05-18 22:11-0400]
> The message exchange model says (below is from our
> editor's draft):
> 
>   A XMLP/SOAP application receiving a XMLP/SOAP message
>   MUST process that message by performing the following
>   actions in the order listed below:
>     1 - Identify all blocks of the XMLP/SOAP message intended
>       for that application (see section 4.2.2)
>     2 - Verify that all mandatory blocks identified in step 1
>       are supported by the application for this message (see
>       section 4.2.3) and process them accordingly. If this is
>       not the case then discard the message (see section 4.4).
>       The processor MAY ignore optional blocks identified in
>       step 1 without affecting the outcome of the processing.
>     3 - If the XMLP/SOAP application is not the ultimate
>       destination of the message then remove all blocks
>       identified in step 1 before forwarding the message.
> 
> There are a couple of things that I wanted to get people's
> opinion on:
>  - this doesn't (nor does any other part of the spec)
>    say anything about a SOAP/XMLP processor validating
>    the message.  Or is it assumed that if it doesn't
>    match the schema it MUST fault?  Is a processor
>    noncompliant if it doesn't fault?

I don't think that XMLP/SOAP processors should do message validation.

They should process the message, and if they find a problem, then
don't attempt to fix it but fail saying that the message is not a
valid XMLP/SOAP message (a Client[1] error).

>  - Taking a very literalist approach, the above list
>    could be taken to imply that a SOAP/XMLP processor
>    needs to scan the entire message in order to identify
>    all of the blocks intended for it before can process
>    any of them.  Is this truly the intent?

I don't think that the specification should force implementation to
identify all the blocks before processing them, although the text
indeed seems to go in that direction. I would tend to think that this
is a wording problem.

  1. http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/1/04/17/xmlp-soap-01.html#_Toc478383510
-- 
Hugo Haas - W3C
mailto:hugo@w3.org - http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/ - tel:+1-617-452-2092

Received on Monday, 21 May 2001 18:52:47 UTC