SOAP with attachments: A definition
You can associate a SOAP message with one or more attachments in their native format (for example GIF or JPEG) by using a multipart MIME structure for transport.
There are two main standards that define how to do this:
- SOAP Messages with Attachments W3C Note. This document defines specific use of the Multipart/Related MIME media type, and rules for the use of URI references to refer to entities bundled within the MIME package. It outlines a technique for a SOAP 1.1 message to be carried within a MIME multipart/related message in such a way that the SOAP processing rules for a standard SOAP message are not changed.
- Web Services-Interoperability (WS-I) Attachments Profile Version 1.0. This
profile compliments the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 to add support for conveying interoperable
attachments with SOAP messages. There are two main parts to this profile:
- An introduction to the XML Schema type
swaref(SOAP with attachments reference). This is used to define content within the SOAP body that refers to attachments within the message. - A definition of how a WSDL message part that is bound to a MIME attachment is encoded into the SOAP message.
- An introduction to the XML Schema type
The service integration bus supports both of these standards, subject to the restrictions detailed in Limitations in the support for SOAP with attachments.