RE: SOAP/XML Protocol and filtering, etc.

>HTTP servers do not dispatch on content-type.

I agree, dispatching on Content-type does not occur within the HTTP server,
it's the function of a message broker to dispatch based on Content-type.

>either you're dispatching on the URI or you're breaking compatibility with
>HTTP.

I agree, the HTTP server will dispatch processing to the request-uri of a
HTTP POST,
in SOAP's case.

However, if the request-URI is a program that performs message broker
functions then
dispatching, by the message broker, is performed based on Content-type or
some
other information within the HTTP entity headers (e.g. SOAPAction) or
session information
(e.g. cookies, username).

If the SOAPAction is removed and there is nothing else in the HTTP headers
to tell the message broker
how to dispatch then the message broker will have to interrogate the
incoming messages to decide how to dispatch the information. The message
broker would require
intimate knowledge of each incoming message, including the ability to
decrypt, if necessary.

The message broker design pattern needs "something" outside the message
payload (e.g. HTTP or MIME headers) to facilitate dispatch functions. The
alternative
requires message brokers to have intimate knowledge of each message payload.

Dick Brooks (ebXML liaison)
http://www.8760.com/


-----Original Message-----
From: moore@cs.utk.edu [mailto:moore@cs.utk.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 12:24 AM
To: Dick Brooks
Cc: Keith Moore; Henrik Frystyk Nielsen; Mark Nottingham; ietf@ietf.org;
xml-dist-app@w3.org
Subject: Re: SOAP/XML Protocol and filtering, etc.


> SOAP messages can take many forms. SOAPAction provides the information
> needed by a generic message broker to dispatch a message to the
appropriate
> handler, without requiring the message broker to have intimate knowledge
of
> each SOAP message structure. The SOAPAction can serve as a "key" into a
> table of message processors. IMO, SOAPAction is conceptually similar to
the
> MIME Content-type.

HTTP servers do not dispatch on content-type.

either you're dispatching on the URI or you're breaking compatibility with
HTTP.

Keith

Received on Tuesday, 8 May 2001 08:20:59 UTC