Re: why no doc type declaration and PIs in SOAP?

I don't think that we have to say anything about the 
"payload". If some service wants to encode an XML document
complete with a DTD and PIs in the SOAP:Body using base64 and CDATA, 
or as an attachment ala SOAP Messages with Attachments or DIME, 
then that's their business. One would assume that it can be
handled appropriately.

The exclusion of DTDs and PIs applies to SOAP-the-envelope only,
IMO.

Cheers,

Chris

Noah_Mendelsohn@lotus.com wrote:
> 
> Francis Norton writes:
> 
> >> Why do you exclude the payload? Are SOAP payloads
> >> allowed to contain DTDs and PIs?
> 
> As I said in my previous note, having a way to allow a payload to carry an
> entire XML document would be a good thing.  Bad news:  XML itself doesn't
> allow it, one of the primary failings of XML IMO (a hierarchical format
> that can't contain itself.)  Why?  Well among other reasons, you can't
> have multiple internal subset DTD's in an XML document.  There's no
> scoping mechanism for them.   You might also want to switch encodings
> (e.g. a schema in UTF8 describing a document in BIG5, both in the same
> envelope.)  General entities can't have conflicting names in the same
> document, etc., etc.   So, a good goal, but if we don't revise XML itself
> we will have to either use encoding tricks, something like
> SOAP+attachments, etc.  You cannot in general carry a complete XML
> document, or even just an extra payload-oriented internal subset DTD,
> within what is otherwise an XML SOAP envelope document.
> 
> BTW:  the statements about schema are true.  It doesn't let you declare
> entities.  As I said in my previous note, entities are useful, but they do
> have performance implications.  I'm not convinced that for applications
> like web services messaging they are worth the cost.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Noah Mendelsohn                                    Voice: 1-617-693-4036
> Lotus Development Corp.                            Fax: 1-617-693-8676
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Received on Friday, 21 September 2001 12:02:44 UTC