Re: text/xml for SOAP is incorrect

At 03:10 PM 9/19/2001 -0700, Mark Nottingham wrote:

>So, let's imagine an intermediary that modifies XHTML in-flight (not
>pleasant, I know, but bear with me).
>
>If SOAP and XHTML share application/xml, the intermediary can't use
>the content-type to find XHTML messages for processing, which it can
>scan for very efficienty. Instead, to behave properly, it has to look
>for application/xml, and then parse the XML (perhaps with SAX, so
>that they can stream) to figure out what the root namespace is.

Is application/xml defined as a media type that is XHTML and
can be transformed by an intermediary?  If so, then no SOAP
application should send application/xml.  If not, then any
intermediary that pretends that "application/xml means XHTML"
will just be misdesigned.

It is my understanding that application/xml does not imply
XHTML and transformable.  Developers of intermediaries should
band together to develop a clear, unambiguous, and efficient
header for transformable XML content.  In my opinion they will not
be able to use application/xml for this whether or not SOAP uses
it for its media type.

John.
______________________________________________________
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
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Received on Thursday, 20 September 2001 13:31:34 UTC