SOAP 1.1 Spec Vs. SOAP 1.1 Schema inconsistencies

[Martin Phillips1 <mp...@uk.ibm.com>]

Hello there everyone, during my playing about with Tuscany SDO2 I have run 
into a problem using Tuscany to read in some of my existing SOAP test 
messages. I believe that the problem lies in an inconsistency between the 
SOAP 1.1 specification, and the SOAP 1.1 Schema.  My test SOAP messages 
follow the Specification, and Tuscany sticks rigidly to the Schema.  Below 
is my (inexpert) analysis of the inconsistency.

The basic inconsistency is that the Specification allows the SOAP Envelope 
to have an encodingStyle attribute (and shows it in examples), but the 
Schema specifically forbids it.



"4.1.1 SOAP encodingStyle Attribute
The SOAP encodingStyle global attribute can be used to indicate the 
serialization rules used in a SOAP message. This attribute MAY appear on 
any element, and is scoped to that element's contents and all child 
elements not themselves containing such an attribute, much as an XML 
namespace declaration is scoped. There is no default encoding defined for 
a SOAP message."

There is an example SOAP message in the prose of the specification that 
has encodingStyle on the Envelope

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope
  xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
  SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
   <SOAP-ENV:Body>
       <m:GetLastTradePrice xmlns:m="Some-URI">
           <symbol>DIS</symbol>
       </m:GetLastTradePrice>
   </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>


Yet the SOAP 1.1 Schema says:

  <xs:element name="Envelope" type="tns:Envelope" /> 
- <xs:complexType name="Envelope">
- <xs:sequence>
  <xs:element ref="tns:Header" minOccurs="0" /> 
  <xs:element ref="tns:Body" minOccurs="1" /> 
  <xs:any namespace="##other" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" 
processContents="lax" /> 
  </xs:sequence>
  <xs:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax" /> 
  </xs:complexType>

     <xs:attribute name="encodingStyle" type="tns:encodingStyle" /> 
- <xs:attributeGroup name="encodingStyle">
  <xs:attribute ref="tns:encodingStyle" /> 
  </xs:attributeGroup>


So the Schema says that Envelope only allows any attributes not in the 
same namespace (##other), yet encodingStyle is in the same namespace, and 
therfor is not allowed on Envelope.


I may be making a mountain out of a molehill here, but the Spec and Schema 
don't seem to match up (assuming my interpretation is correct).  This 
means that SDO2/Tuscany needs to realise this and decide whether to be as 
strict as they currently are (not allowing encodingStyle on Envelope) 
which may lead to incompatible-ness with old SOAP out there, or to 
specifically relax a bit and allow the attribute, even though it breaks 
the Schema.

Just thought I should throw this out there for discussion and debate.  I 
do not know how much existing SOAP there is with the encodingStyle 
attribute on the Envelope, or how much of it will/could be sent to Tuscany 
code for parsing, but I thought it would be better that an informed 
decision is made as to how Tuscany will behave.

So - what do people think?


Martin.
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