Proposal for dealing with SOAP lc issue 395

Regarding issue 395 [1] which is the remaining SOAP 1.2 last call issue
listed in [2], here is a proposal for resolving it. The issue states
that we should check that it is clear that the HTTP binding prohibits
DTDs. All in all, I think the current text is fine and doesn't need
tweaking.

Given that we define a special media type for serializing SOAP, the
issue has to be considered in two steps: 1) what are the rules for the
media type "application/soap+xml" and 2) what are the rules for other
media types.

1) Checking the description of the media type "application/soap+xml", it
says [5]: 

	Encoding considerations: 

	Identical to those of "application/xml" as described
	in [RFC 3023], section 3.2, as applied to the SOAP
	envelope infoset.

Given that this quite clearly says that the serialization is limited to
the SOAP envelope infoset which in [3] clearly prohibits use of DTDs, I
don't think there can be any confusion here.

2) Regarding other media types, in [4] we explicitly state that other
media types may be used by the HTTP binding and that such media types
can define additional/alternative rules for carrying the SOAP infoset:

	Conforming implementations of this binding:

	2. MAY send requests and responses using other
	media types providing that such media types
	provide for at least the transfer of SOAP
	XML Infoset.

However, the spec provides no detail as to what those rules may be which
I think is exactly right in that this is defined by the respective media
types.

I would therefore suggest that we close it without further changes.

Henrik Frystyk Nielsen
mailto:henrikn@microsoft.com

[1] http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/xmlp-lc-issues.html#x395
[2] http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/xmlp-lc-issues.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/2/06/LC/soap12-part1.html#soapenv
[4]
http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/2/06/LC/soap12-part2.html#httpmediatype
[5] http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/2/06/LC/soap12-part2.html#ietf-draft

Received on Tuesday, 26 November 2002 18:54:11 UTC