Re: What is a SOAP Message

Mark Baker writes:

>> When a SOAP envelope is sent over an application
>> protocol, then the "SOAP message" consists of the
>> underlying protocol envelope together with the
>> SOAP envelope.

I think we agree on the general direction, but not in detail. 
Specifically, SOAP is very clear that a SOAP message has a definition at a 
level above any particular underlying protocol.  In that respect, my 
example of "Action" in the HTTP binding may have been off base.  Note that 
SOAP carefully abstracts GET/POST into a Web method property that can be 
applied consistently to any REST-compatible underlying protocol.  Note 
that, at least in principle, a given SOAP message can be relayed through 
intermediaries over sucessive hops that use different underlying 
protocols.

So, I think we need to decide first whether the abstract SOAP message 
includes any information (often modeled as properties) other than the XML 
Envelope Infoset.    Having done that, we can agree on a terminology that 
deals unambiguously with messages as represented on SOAP particular 
underlying protocol on one hop or another.

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Received on Monday, 3 February 2003 15:16:47 UTC