Issue - 87 - Optional SOAP Headers

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Issue - 87 - Optional SOAP Headers
Status: open

Date added: 27 Nov 2003

Submitter: Yaron Goland

Date submitted: 26 November 2003

Document: Main BPEL Doc

Description: A key feature of the SOAP messaging model is the concept of intermediaries and the ability of
intermediaries to insert headers into SOAP messages as they are routed. A direct consequence of this model
is that SOAP messages may contain optional headers, that is, headers that sometimes are included in the
message and sometimes not. BPEL processes need access to these optional headers because these headers
often contain application relevant information, especially in the case where application (as opposed
to infrastructure) intermediaries are involved.

Unfortunately WSDL does not define how one should specify an optional message part in an
abstract definition. To resolve this ambiguity and to fully support SOAP it is necessary
for BPEL to introduce a mechanism that allows the BPEL process to specify that a particular
message part in an abstract message definition is optional.

Changes: 27 Nov 2003 - new issue

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