Re: Difference between SOAP RPC and other BodyContent?

Adonis asks:

>> Is the SOAP application responsible to decide if the 
>> XML-Content is a RPC or is not?

Yes.  In all cases, the SOAP 1.2 ultimate receiver responsible for 
recognizing the contents of the body, and knowing what to do with it.  See 
[1] which says:

An ultimate SOAP receiver MUST correctly process the immediate children of 
the SOAP body (see 5.3 SOAP Body). However, with the exception of SOAP 
faults (see 5.4 SOAP Fault), Part 1 of this specification (this document) 
mandates no particular structure or interpretation of these elements, and 
provides no standard means for specifying the processing to be done.

Whether the RPC convention is used is just one aspect of knowing how to 
deal with the body, and that is always the responsibility of the ultimate 
receiver.  WSDL is one means of establishing agreement between sender and 
receiver on the interpretation of the body, but use of WSDL is not 
required.  You could write some other specification, or call the other 
developer on the phone and tell him or her what's expected.

I hope that clarifies the intention of the SOAP Candidate Recommendation. 
Thank you.

Noah


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/CR-soap12-part1-20021219/#structinterpbodies

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Noah Mendelsohn                              Voice: 1-617-693-4036
IBM Corporation                                Fax: 1-617-693-8676
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