The SOAP fault (the <Fault>
element) is a sub-element of the SOAP body, which is used for reporting
errors.
If present, the SOAP fault element must appear as a body entry
and must not appear more than once in a body element. The sub-elements
of the SOAP fault element are different in SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2.
SOAP 1.1
In SOAP 1.1, the SOAP fault contains
the following sub-elements:
<faultcode>- The
<faultcode> element is a mandatory element
in the <Fault> element. It provides information
about the fault in a form that can be processed by software. SOAP
defines a small set of SOAP fault codes covering basic SOAP faults,
and this set can be extended by applications.
<faultstring>- The
<faultstring> element is a mandatory element
in the <Fault> element. It provides information
about the fault in a form intended for a human reader.
<faultactor>- The
<faultactor> element contains the URI
of the SOAP node that generated the fault. A SOAP node that is not
the ultimate SOAP receiver must include the <faultactor> element
when it creates a fault; an ultimate SOAP receiver is not obliged
to include this element, but might do so.
<detail>- The
<detail> element carries application-specific
error information related to the <Body> element.
It must be present if the contents of the <Body> element
were not successfully processed. The <detail> element
must not be used to carry information about error information belonging
to header entries. Detailed error information belonging to header
entries must be carried in header entries.
SOAP 1.2
In SOAP 1.2, the SOAP fault contains
the following sub-elements:
<Code>- The
<Code> element is a mandatory element
in the <Fault> element. It provides information
about the fault in a form that can be processed by software. It contains
a <Value> element and an optional <Subcode> element.
<Reason>- The
<Reason> element is a mandatory element
in the <Fault> element. It provides information
about the fault in a form intended for a human reader. The <Reason> element
contains one or more <Text> elements, each of
which contains information about the fault in a different language.
<Node>- The
<Node> element contains the URI of the
SOAP node that generated the fault. A SOAP node that is not the ultimate
SOAP receiver must include the <Node> element
when it creates a fault; an ultimate SOAP receiver is not obliged
to include this element, but might do so.
<Role>- The
<Role> element contains a URI that identifies
the role in which the node was operating at the point the fault occurred.
<Detail>- The
<Detail> element is an optional element,
which contains application-specific error information related to the
SOAP fault codes describing the fault. The presence of the <Detail> element
has no significance as to which parts of the faulty SOAP message were
processed.