Attachments and Re: newbie questions on "style" attribute

[GEORGE MCKINNEY <gh...@shaw.ca>]

Anne ( or anyone else who can answer ), 

In another entry of the blog Anne references, I read:

<quote>
Unfortunatly, because Microsoft refuses to support SwA, the Attachments Profile doesn't really enable interoperability. I can understand Microsoft position on SwA, though -- SwA is a remarkably insecure mechanism for passing attachments. In the future (probably 2006), most SOAP platforms will adopt MTOM as the standard mechanism to pass attachments, and Microsoft is implementing support for MTOM in Indigo. (I'll be posting more on attachment mechanisms in a future blog entry.)
</quote>

I'm not sure what the implications of this are, but the design we have been beginning to think about has a single kind of message, with an xml attachment that follows a schema that would be implied by the contents of one of the bits of the SOAPBody. This would not be open to the world, but only to partners with whom we have a vpn connection. Because the attachments are of widely varying sizes, and the set of schemas (ae?) they follow are expected to change fairly frequently (and each partner would use only a subset of that ), our intent was to have a fairly stable base on which we "layer" the attachments. I had imagined that the WSDL would simply specify an xml attachment. Is that where the Microsoft tools break?

I have played with (oops, make that " done some exploratory prototyping with " ) both Axis 1.3 and Weblogic 8.1 webservice tools, and using their Handler facilities, been able to add / remove attachments without having any reference to them in the WSDL. Can anyone tell me whether that be a viable tactic to use with partners that are Microsoft shops? 

BTW, Anne, I didn't see the " ... future blog entry." Does it exist yet? Please? I've found your postings here to be some of the clearest SOAP / webservices information around.

Thanks (and especially to Anne )
George McKinney

----- Original Message -----
From: Anne Thomas Manes <at...@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 7:41 am
Subject: Re: newbie questions on "style" attribute

> The style attribute in WSDL is different from the style attribute 
> in WSDD.
> 
> The WSDL style has two possible options: RPC and Document. (If 
> neither is
> specified, it defaults to "document".) This attribute refers to 
> the SOAP
> message style -- whether the SOAP Body contains a document defined 
> by a
> schema or whether the Body is constructed dynamically based on the 
> methodname and a set of parameter types. WSDL has another 
> attribute, "use", which
> indicates whether the message structure is defined by a schema
> (use="literal") or generated using the SOAP encoding data model
> (use="encoded"). Valid combinations of these two attributes include
> document/literal, rpc/literal, and rpc/encoded.
> 
> The WSDD style has four options: RPC, WRAPPED, DOCUMENT, MESSAGE. 
> If no
> style is specified, it defaults to "RPC".) This style attribute 
> encompassesboth message style and programming style. There are 
> three types of
> programming style:
> - a parameterized invocation API (XML parameters are mapped to 
> individualJava classes):
> return method(arg1, arg2)
> - an object-based invocation API (XML parameters are collectively 
> mapped to
> a bean):
> return method (object)
> - a messaging API (XML messages are mapped to DOM):
> Document method(Document)
> 
> RPC produces rpc/encoded with a parameterized API (you can use the 
> "use"attribute to specify that you want rpc/literal)
> WRAPPED produces document/literal with a parameterized API
> DOCUMENT produces document/literal with an object-based API
> MESSAGE produces document/literal with a messaging API
> 
> For more information on the WRAPPED style, see my blog:
> http://atmanes.blogspot.com/2005/03/wrapped-documentliteral-
> convention.html
> Anne
> 
> On 2/8/06, Yu-Hui Jin <yu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Anyone can help me to understand the "style" element better. 
> (well, or
> > pointing me to some good articles on it?)
> >
> > Here's what's puzzling me:
> >
> > In Axis1.x user guide, it says the "service" element can have a 
> "style"> attribute.  I also see under the "wsdl:binding" element, 
> both "soap:binding"
> > and "soap:operation" elements can have a "style" attribute as 
> well.   I've
> > got a few questions:
> >
> > - do they have the same meaning and one will overide the other?
> >
> > - when do I select "rpc" and "document" for my WSDL?  It seems 
> "document"> is suggested for Axis 1.x, is it still a better choice 
> for Axis2?
> >
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > -Hui
> >
>