The "application/soap+xml" media type
RFC 3902

Network Working Group M. Baker
Request for Comments: 3902 Independent
Category: Informational M. Nottingham
 BEA Systems
 September 2004

 The "application/soap+xml" media type

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).

Abstract

 This document defines the "application/soap+xml" media type which can
 be used to describe SOAP 1.2 messages serialized as XML 1.0.

1. Introduction

 SOAP version 1.2 (SOAP) is a lightweight protocol intended for
 exchange of structured information between peers in a decentralized,
 distributed environment. It defines an extensible messaging
 framework that contains a message construct based on XML technologies
 that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols.

 This specification defines the media type "application/soap+xml"
 which can be used to identify SOAP 1.2 message envelopes that have
 been serialized with XML 1.0. Such serializations are useful as the
 basis of "wire formats" for SOAP 1.2 Protocol Binding Specifications
 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624], or in other situations where an XML
 serialization of a SOAP envelope is required.

 The "application/soap+xml" media type explicitly identifies SOAP 1.2
 message envelopes that have been serialised with XML 1.0; message
 envelopes with a different SOAP namespace version or using another
 XML serialisation MUST NOT use it.

 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

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2. Registration

 MIME media type name: application
 MIME subtype name: soap+xml
 Required parameters: none
 Optional parameters:

 "charset": This parameter has identical semantics to the charset
 parameter of the "application/xml" media type as specified in
 RFC 3023 [RFC3023].

 "action": This optional parameter can be used to specify the URI
 that identifies the intent of the message. In SOAP 1.2, it
 serves a similar purpose as the SOAPAction HTTP header field
 did in SOAP 1.1. Namely, its value identifies the intent of
 the message.

 The value of the action parameter is an absolute URI-reference
 as defined by RFC 2396 [RFC2396], which MUST be non-empty.
 SOAP places no restrictions on the specificity of the URI or
 that it is resolvable. Although the purpose of the action
 parameter is to indicate the intent of the SOAP message there
 is no mechanism for automatically computing the value based on
 the SOAP envelope. In other words, the value has to be
 determined out of band. It is recommended that the same value
 be used to identify sets of message types that are logically
 connected in some manner, for example part of the same
 "service". It is strongly RECOMMENDED that the URI be globally
 unique and stable over time.

 Use of the action parameter is OPTIONAL. SOAP Receivers MAY
 use it as a hint to optimize processing, but SHOULD NOT require
 its presence in order to operate.

 Encoding considerations: Identical to those of "application/xml" as
 described in RFC 3023 [RFC3023], section 3.2, as applied to the
 SOAP envelope infoset.

 Security considerations: Because SOAP can carry application defined
 data whose semantics is independent from that of any MIME wrapper
 (or context within which the MIME wrapper is used), one should not
 expect to be able to understand the semantics of the SOAP message
 based on the semantics of the MIME wrapper alone. Therefore,
 whenever using the "application/soap+xml" media type, it is
 strongly RECOMMENDED that the security implications of the context
 within which the SOAP message is used is fully understood. The
 security implications are likely to involve both the specific SOAP
 binding to an underlying protocol as well as the application-

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RFC 3902 The "application/soap+xml" media type September 2004

 defined semantics of the data carried in the SOAP message (though
 one must be careful when doing this, as discussed in SOAP 1.2 Part
 1 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624], section Binding to
 Application-Specific Protocols).

 Also, see SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624], the
 entire section Security Considerations.

 In addition, as this media type uses the "+xml" convention, it
 shares the same security considerations as described in RFC 3023
 [RFC3023], section 10.

 The action parameter is not a security mechanism, and SHOULD NOT
 be used for authentication. If the action parameter is used to
 make decisions (e.g., dispatch, filtering), it is RECOMMENDED that
 the basis for such decisions should be confirmed by examining the
 SOAP Envelope.

 Interoperability considerations: There are no known interoperability
 issues.

 Published specification: SOAP 1.2 Part 1
 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624] and SOAP 1.2 Part 2
 [W3C.REC-soap12-part2-20030624].

 Applications which use this media type: Various SOAP 1.2 conformant
 toolkits use this media type.

 Additional information:
 File extension: SOAP messages are not required or expected to be
 stored as files.
 Fragment identifiers: Identical to that of "application/xml" as
 described in RFC 3023 [RFC3023], section 5.
 Base URI: As specified in RFC 3023 [RFC3023], section 6. Also see
 SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624], section Use of
 URIs in SOAP.
 Macintosh File Type code: TEXT
 Person and email address to contact for further information:
 World Wide Web Consortium <web-human@w3.org>
 Intended usage: COMMON
 Author/Change controller: The SOAP 1.2 specification set is a work
 product of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Protocol Working
 Group. The W3C has change control over these specifications.

3. Security Considerations

 See the "Security Considerations" section of the registration
 template found in Section 2.

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4. Normative References

 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

 [RFC2396] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
 Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396,
 August 1998.

 [RFC3023] Murata, M., St.Laurent, S., and D. Kohn, "XML Media
 Types", RFC 3023, January 2001.

 [W3C.REC-soap12-part1-20030624]
 Hadley, M., Mendelsohn, N., Moreau, J., Nielsen, H., and
 M. Gudgin, "SOAP Version 1.2 Part 1: Messaging
 Framework", W3C REC REC-soap12-part1-20030624, June 2003.

 [W3C.REC-soap12-part2-20030624]
 Moreau, J., Nielsen, H., Gudgin, M., Hadley, M., and N.
 Mendelsohn, "SOAP Version 1.2 Part 2: Adjuncts", W3C REC
 REC-soap12-part2-20030624, June 2003.

5. Authors' Addresses

 Mark A. Baker
 Independent
 37 Charles St.
 Ottawa, Ontario K1M 1R3
 CA

 EMail: distobj@acm.org

 Mark Nottingham
 BEA Systems
 235 Montgomery St., Level 15
 San Francisco, CA 94010
 US

 EMail: mnot@pobox.com

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RFC 3902 The "application/soap+xml" media type September 2004

6. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).

 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and at www.rfc-editor.org, and except as set
 forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

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 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/S HE
 REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE
 INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
 IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
 THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

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