webMethods Knowlegebase : ClassCastException with empty soap header (1728670)

Problem

When calling a webservice via SOAP-RPC with an emtpy soap header element as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">

<SOAP-ENV:Header>

</SOAP-ENV:Header>

<SOAP-ENV:Body>

<oxy:invokeIMBBInterface SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:oxy="http://IMBB_WSI/IMBB_StdWSI.adapter.services">

<WSInterfaceInDoc>

<CO_INCIDENT>

</CO_INCIDENT>

</WSInterfaceInDoc>

</oxy:invokeIMBBInterface>

</SOAP-ENV:Body>

</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

this is the error returned in soap response:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

<SOAP-ENV:Body>

<SOAP-ENV:Fault>

<faultcode>SOAP-ENV:Client</faultcode>

<faultstring>[ISS.0088.9134] Exception occurred while processing the body of the message</faultstring>

<faultactor>http://10.125.199.11:10308/soap/rpc</faultactor&gt;

<detail xmlns:webM="http://www.webMethods.com/2001/10/soap/encoding">

<webM:serviceStackTrace>

<webM:java>wm.server.soap:rpc</webM:java>

</webM:serviceStackTrace>

<webM:exception>

<webM:className>java.lang.ClassCastException</webM:className>

<webM:message xml:lang="">com.wm.lang.xml.TextNode cannot be cast to com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.SOAPHeaderElement</webM:message>

<webM:stackTrace xml:lang="">java.lang.ClassCastException: com.wm.lang.xml.TextNode cannot be cast to com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.SOAPHeaderElement

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.SOAPHeader$1.matchesFilter(SOAPHeader.java:281)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.NodeIterator.keepSearching(NodeIterator.java:112)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.NodeIterator.&lt;init>(NodeIterator.java:66)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.NodeIterator.&lt;init>(NodeIterator.java:53)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.SOAPHeader.examineMustUnderstandHeaderElements(SOAPHeader.java:277)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.SOAPMessage.getHeaderMustUnderstandNodes(SOAPMessage.java:1180)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.saaj.SOAPMessage.getHeaderMustUnderstandNodes(SOAPMessage.java:199)

at wm.server.soap.rpc(soap.java:798)

at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor134.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.JavaService.baseInvoke(JavaService.java:403)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.InvokeManager.process(InvokeManager.java:631)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.util.tspace.ReservationProcessor.process(ReservationProcessor.java:40)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.StatisticsProcessor.process(StatisticsProcessor.java:44)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.ServiceCompletionImpl.process(ServiceCompletionImpl.java:253)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.ValidateProcessor.process(ValidateProcessor.java:51)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.ACLManager.process(ACLManager.java:228)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.DispatchProcessor.process(DispatchProcessor.java:30)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.AuditLogManager.process(AuditLogManager.java:634)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.InvokeManager.invoke(InvokeManager.java:536)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.invoke.InvokeManager.invoke(InvokeManager.java:381)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.ServiceManager.invoke(ServiceManager.java:237)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.ServiceManager.invoke(ServiceManager.java:119)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.HTTPSOAPHandler._process(HTTPSOAPHandler.java:532)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.HTTPSOAPHandler.process(HTTPSOAPHandler.java:146)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.HTTPDispatch.handleRequest(HTTPDispatch.java:185)

at com.wm.app.b2b.server.Dispatch.run(Dispatch.java:334)

at com.wm.util.pool.PooledThread.run(PooledThread.java:118)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)</webM:stackTrace>

</webM:exception>

</detail>

</SOAP-ENV:Fault>

</SOAP-ENV:Body>

</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

These notations of SOAP-ENV:Header element in soap request work without error:

<SOAP-ENV:Header></SOAP-ENV:Header>

<SOAP-ENV:Header/>

This notation in soap request yields the error:

<SOAP-ENV:Header>

</SOAP-ENV:Header>