- From: John J. Barton <John_Barton@hpl.hp.com>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 11:18:47 -0700
- To: Mark Baker <distobj@acm.org>, mmurata@trl.ibm.co.jp
- Cc: xml-dist-app@w3.org, simonstl@simonstl.com, dan@dankohn.com
With all respect to the authors of RFC 3023 (XML Media Types), binding behavior to representations of Web resources is not at good engineering direction for Web technologies[1] A SOAP message is text: it can be read with text tools and it is encoded as XML so XML parsers can study it and parse further information without hints. There should not be a different media type for XML sent to an "application" verses one sent to a "browser" (which is just another application). The server should not assume the use of the media representation. Therefore application/xml is not necessary. I suppose it may be to late to turn back from that. But let us not go further down the path to application/soap+xml, application/soap_for_ecommerce+xml, application/soap_for_book_buying+xml application/soap_for_book_buying_and video_buying+xml, etc. Content-type should describe the media type, not its use, or provide other information that is elsewhere. [1] Roy Fielding, "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures", http://www.ebuilt.com/fielding/pubs/fielding_dissertation_2up.pdf John. At 11:59 AM 9/17/2001 -0400, Mark Baker wrote: >Murata-san, > > > Dear the XML Protocol WG, > > > > As a co-author of RFC 3023 (XML Media Types), I repeat my claim. Use > > of text/xml for SOAP is incorrect. Please use application/xml, > > instead. > >I assume you're primarily suggesting that text/xml not be used, not that >application/xml should be used. I personally believe that >application/soap+xml is the best choice as it; > >- helps with the migration to application/xml once it can be assumed >that XML processors dispatch on namespaces (see RFC 3023, last >paragraph in Sec 3). >- provides a syntactically cleaner place for holding information >previously conveyed via SOAPAction (a parameter on the media type, >which can't be done to application/xml without updating 3023) > >Thanks for bringing this up again, it's an important point. > >MB ______________________________________________________ John J. Barton email: John_Barton@hpl.hp.com http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/John_Barton/index.htm MS 1U-17 Hewlett-Packard Labs 1501 Page Mill Road phone: (650)-236-2888 Palo Alto CA 94304-1126 FAX: (650)-857-5100
Received on Monday, 17 September 2001 14:30:07 UTC