From: Simon Horrell <simonh_at_develop.com>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 10:35:47 +0100

Is there any way to control the way the RI builds SOAP messages? For
instance, I would like to build a web service from either of the following
definitions and have control over the array item element names in the SOAP
message.

Either build the web service from this Java service definition interface:

public interface MathsIF extends Remote {
    public double[] add(double[] num1, double[] num2) throws
RemoteException;
}

or build the web service from this WSDL:

<definitions xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:tns="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/wsdl"
xmlns:ns2="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/schema"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" name="Maths"
targetNamespace="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/wsdl">
  <types>
    <schema xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:tns="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/schema"
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:soap-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
targetNamespace="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/schema">
      <complexType name="ArrayOfdouble">
        <complexContent>
          <restriction base="soap-enc:Array">
            <attribute ref="soap-enc:arrayType"
wsdl:arrayType="double[]"/></restriction></complexContent></complexType></sc
hema></types>
  <message name="add">
    <part name="arrayOfdouble_1" type="ns2:ArrayOfdouble"/>
    <part name="arrayOfdouble_2" type="ns2:ArrayOfdouble"/></message>
  <message name="addResponse">
    <part name="result" type="ns2:ArrayOfdouble"/></message>
  <portType name="MathsIF">
    <operation name="add">
      <input message="tns:add"/>
      <output message="tns:addResponse"/></operation></portType>
  <binding name="MathsIFBinding" type="tns:MathsIF">
    <operation name="add">
      <input>
        <soap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
use="encoded"
namespace="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/wsdl"/></input>
      <output>
        <soap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
use="encoded"
namespace="http://develop.com/maths/simple/arrays/wsdl"/></output>
      <soap:operation soapAction=""/></operation>
    <soap:binding transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"
style="rpc"/></binding>
  <service name="MathsService">
    <port name="MathsIFPort" binding="tns:MathsIFBinding">
      <soap:address
location="http://localhost/MathsService/jaxrpc/MathsIFPort"/></port></servic
e></definitions>

Alternatively, given that the names of array item element names really don't
matter for such a SOAP encoded message, is there any way to fix the RI so
that it doesn't check for prescribed element names? This is hindering
interop (with .NET for me in this case) because other tools, in the face of
the above WSDL, are unlikely to choose the names that the RI is looking for.

On a wider note, this, in a nutshell, highlights the problem with the
non-normative SOAP encoding style. When soap encoding style is used then the
schema types that make up the abstract message definition are just hints in
terms of the physical message format and so if there is nothing in the
interface description that tells client or server how to actually build the
message that goes on the wire (e.g. the names of array item elements in this
case) then it is hardly surprising that the client and server choose
different names and either stands the chance of not being able to cope with
the other's choices. Speaks volumes for literal style.

Si.