SOAP & Web arch

Noah,

On 3/28/06, noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com <noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> I believe it is possible to use SOAP in a
> manner that's perfectly consistent with Web architecture.

That's not the case unfortunately, as it has at least one major flaw
(the use of XML being another, as Roy mentioned).  There's an
ambiguity in SOAP 1.2 that's at the root of the problem behind
endPointRefs-47; that the ImmediateDestination property is defined as
the means for addressing both the next HTTP hop, as well as the
ultimate recipient of the message;

"An identifier (URI) that denotes the responding SOAP node"
 -- http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-soap12-part2-20030624/#tabreqcon

"The identifier of the immediate destination of an outbound message."
 -- http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-soap12-part2-20030624/#tabreqresprops2

Implementations have, from what I've seen, unanimously opted for the
second interpretation which, unfortunately, is incompatible with Web
architecture.  This is because ImmediateDestination is bound to the
HTTP Request-URI in the HTTP binding, and the HTTP Request-URI is
understood, per the HTTP spec as well as deployed server components,
to identify the ultimate recipient.

I do agree that Roy probably overstated the case though, at least with
respect to the spec itself (both 1.1 and 1.2).  But of the SOAP
implementations I've seen, *none* of them are setup to use SOAP in a
manner consistent with Web architecture, so I think his position is a
reasonable one.

Mark.
--
Mark Baker.  Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.       http://www.markbaker.ca

Received on Tuesday, 28 March 2006 15:16:19 UTC