Java Web Services in a Nutshell

Name

Package javax.xml.soap

Synopsis

The javax.xml.soap package contains the classes and interfaces that make up the Soap with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ). This package can be divided into two major parts: a small number of classes and interfaces that obtain a SOAP message and send it, and a much larger set that deal with the structure of the message itself.

In order to send a message, you need to get an instance of the SOAPConnection class. As is the case with most of the classes in this package, this class is abstract in order to allow vendors to provide their own implementations. You can obtain a SOAPConnection object from the SOAPConnectionFactory class, which is another abstract class that you can get an instance of by calling its newInstance( ) method. A SOAP message is represented by the SOAPMessage class, which can be obtained from a MessageFactory.

SOAP messages are built from elements that are represented in the API by the SOAPElement interface. This interface provides methods that allow you to add other elements and text nodes to form a tree structure that is serialized to XML form when the message is transmitted. Similarly, on receipt, a SOAP message is converted from XML form to a SOAPMessage consisting of SOAPElements and Text nodes. SOAPElement has various subinterfaces that represent different parts of the SOAP message, such as SOAPHeader, SOAPBody, and SOAPFault.

The body of a SOAP message can only contain valid XML data. Non-XML data can be included by adding one ...