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6.2. Adding SOAP Headers to a SOAP 1.1 Binding

Overview

SOAP headers are defined by adding soap:header elements to your default SOAP 1.1 binding. The soap:header element is an optional child of the input, output, and fault elements of the binding. The SOAP header becomes part of the parent message. A SOAP header is defined by specifying a message and a message part. Each SOAP header can only contain one message part, but you can insert as many SOAP headers as needed.

Syntax

The syntax for defining a SOAP header is shown in Example 6.3, “SOAP Header Syntax”. The message attribute of soap:header is the qualified name of the message from which the part being inserted into the header is taken. The part attribute is the name of the message part inserted into the SOAP header. Because SOAP headers are always document style, the WSDL message part inserted into the SOAP header must be defined using an element. Together the message and the part attributes fully describe the data to insert into the SOAP header.

Example 6.3. SOAP Header Syntax

<binding name="headwig">
  <soap:binding style="document"
                transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
    <operation name="weave">
      <soap:operation soapAction="" style="document"/>
      <input name="grain">
        <soap:body ... />
        <soap:header message="QName" part="partName"/>
      </input>
...
</binding>
As well as the mandatory message and part attributes, soap:header also supports the namespace, the use, and the encodingStyle attributes. These optional attributes function the same for soap:header as they do for soap:body.

Splitting messages between body and header

The message part inserted into the SOAP header can be any valid message part from the contract. It can even be a part from the parent message which is being used as the SOAP body. Because it is unlikely that you would want to send information twice in the same message, the SOAP binding provides a means for specifying the message parts that are inserted into the SOAP body.
The soap:body element has an optional attribute, parts, that takes a space delimited list of part names. When parts is defined, only the message parts listed are inserted into the SOAP body. You can then insert the remaining parts into the SOAP header.
Note
When you define a SOAP header using parts of the parent message, Apache CXF automatically fills in the SOAP headers for you.

Example

Example 6.4, “SOAP 1.1 Binding with a SOAP Header” shows a modified version of the orderWidgets service shown in Example 6.1, “Ordering System Interface”. This version has been modified so that each order has an xsd:base64binary value placed in the SOAP header of the request and response. The SOAP header is defined as being the keyVal part from the widgetKey message. In this case you are responsible for adding the SOAP header to your application logic because it is not part of the input or output message.

Example 6.4. SOAP 1.1 Binding with a SOAP Header

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<definitions name="widgetOrderForm.wsdl"
    targetNamespace="http://widgetVendor.com/widgetOrderForm"
    xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
    xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
    xmlns:tns="http://widgetVendor.com/widgetOrderForm"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xsd1="http://widgetVendor.com/types/widgetTypes"
    xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">

<types>
  <schema targetNamespace="http://widgetVendor.com/types/widgetTypes"
           xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">
    <element name="keyElem" type="xsd:base64Binary"/>
  </schema>
</types>

<message name="widgetOrder">
  <part name="numOrdered" type="xsd:int"/>
</message>
<message name="widgetOrderBill">
  <part name="price" type="xsd:float"/>
</message>
<message name="badSize">
  <part name="numInventory" type="xsd:int"/>
</message>
<message name="widgetKey">
  <part name="keyVal" element="xsd1:keyElem"/>
</message>

<portType name="orderWidgets">
  <operation name="placeWidgetOrder">
    <input message="tns:widgetOrder" name="order"/>
    <output message="tns:widgetOrderBill" name="bill"/>
    <fault message="tns:badSize" name="sizeFault"/>
  </operation>
</portType>

<binding name="orderWidgetsBinding" type="tns:orderWidgets">
  <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
    <operation name="placeWidgetOrder">
      <soap:operation soapAction="" style="document"/>
      <input name="order">
        <soap:body use="literal"/>
        <soap:header message="tns:widgetKey" part="keyVal"/>
      </input>
      <output name="bill">
        <soap:body use="literal"/>
        <soap:header message="tns:widgetKey" part="keyVal"/>
      </output>
      <fault name="sizeFault">
        <soap:body use="literal"/>
      </fault>
  </operation>
</binding>
...
</definitions>
You can modify Example 6.4, “SOAP 1.1 Binding with a SOAP Header” so that the header value is a part of the input and output messages as shown in Example 6.5, “SOAP 1.1 Binding for orderWidgets with a SOAP Header”. In this case keyVal is a part of the input and output messages. In the soap:body element's parts attribute specifies that keyVal cannot be inserted into the body. However, it is inserted into the SOAP header.

Example 6.5. SOAP 1.1 Binding for orderWidgets with a SOAP Header

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<definitions name="widgetOrderForm.wsdl"
    targetNamespace="http://widgetVendor.com/widgetOrderForm"
    xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
    xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
    xmlns:tns="http://widgetVendor.com/widgetOrderForm"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xsd1="http://widgetVendor.com/types/widgetTypes"
    xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">

<types>
  <schema targetNamespace="http://widgetVendor.com/types/widgetTypes"
           xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">
    <element name="keyElem" type="xsd:base64Binary"/>
  </schema>
</types>

<message name="widgetOrder">
  <part name="numOrdered" type="xsd:int"/>
  <part name="keyVal" element="xsd1:keyElem"/>
</message>
<message name="widgetOrderBill">
  <part name="price" type="xsd:float"/>
  <part name="keyVal" element="xsd1:keyElem"/>
</message>
<message name="badSize">
  <part name="numInventory" type="xsd:int"/>
</message>

<portType name="orderWidgets">
  <operation name="placeWidgetOrder">
    <input message="tns:widgetOrder" name="order"/>
    <output message="tns:widgetOrderBill" name="bill"/>
    <fault message="tns:badSize" name="sizeFault"/>
  </operation>
</portType>

<binding name="orderWidgetsBinding" type="tns:orderWidgets">
  <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
    <operation name="placeWidgetOrder">
      <soap:operation soapAction="" style="document"/>
      <input name="order">
        <soap:body use="literal" parts="numOrdered"/>
        <soap:header message="tns:widgetOrder" part="keyVal"/>
      </input>
      <output name="bill">
        <soap:body use="literal" parts="bill"/>
        <soap:header message="tns:widgetOrderBill" part="keyVal"/>
      </output>
      <fault name="sizeFault">
        <soap:body use="literal"/>
      </fault>
  </operation>
</binding>
...
</definitions>
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