Re: handling arbitrary XML over HTTP

[Rogerio Saran <rs...@organox.com.br>]

Harris Reynolds wrote:
> Greg,
> 
> You are correct that currently the only way to pass an XML document over
> the wire using AXIS is to wrap it into a SOAP Envelope (using doc/lit
> style).
Can't you use an attachment?

 >   IMHO, the only reason wrapping the XML into SOAP would be a
> kludge though is if you were in control of the both communicating
> applications (the client and server or two peers) or you had an agreement
> with the "other end" (like with an XML Schema....Amazon.com does stuff like
> this) and they knew exactly how to process your raw XML.   Of course even
> with SOAP you'll need to coordinate how to process the message (like with
> WSDL).  Of course that is the beauty of web services...compliant
> applications can communicate seemlessly (at least that is the goal!! :-).
I use SOAP with attachments to deliver complex data strucutures to 
client applications. The SOAP service also provides XSLT stylesheets to 
transform these data structures into several presentation formats.

> 
> Of course the same thing _could_ be accomplished without SOAP/WSDL, but
> that would require more low-level coding on your part (XML parsing,
> transport etc...).  This is actually a debate pitting SOAP against REST
> (See links below).
Or just return your XML document as an HTTP response, as we used to 
before SOAP.

> 
> good luck,
> 
> harris
>