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].

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-

      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.

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

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.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "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.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the ISOC's procedures with respect to rights in ISOC Documents can
   be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
   ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

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