javax.xml.soap

Class SOAPMessage

public abstract class SOAPMessage extends Object

The root class for all SOAP messages. As transmitted on the "wire", a SOAP message is an XML document or a MIME message whose first body part is an XML/SOAP document.

A SOAPMessage object consists of a SOAP part and optionally one or more attachment parts. The SOAP part for a SOAPMessage object is a SOAPPart object, which contains information used for message routing and identification, and which can contain application-specific content. All data in the SOAP Part of a message must be in XML format.

A new SOAPMessage object contains the following by default:

The SOAP part of a message can be retrieved by calling the method SOAPMessage.getSOAPPart(). The SOAPEnvelope object is retrieved from the SOAPPart object, and the SOAPEnvelope object is used to retrieve the SOAPBody and SOAPHeader objects.
 SOAPPart sp = message.getSOAPPart();
 SOAPEnvelope se = sp.getEnvelope();
 SOAPBody sb = se.getBody();
 SOAPHeader sh = se.getHeader();
 

In addition to the mandatory SOAPPart object, a SOAPMessage object may contain zero or more AttachmentPart objects, each of which contains application-specific data. The SOAPMessage interface provides methods for creating AttachmentPart objects and also for adding them to a SOAPMessage object. A party that has received a SOAPMessage object can examine its contents by retrieving individual attachment parts.

Unlike the rest of a SOAP message, an attachment is not required to be in XML format and can therefore be anything from simple text to an image file. Consequently, any message content that is not in XML format must be in an AttachmentPart object.

A MessageFactory object creates new SOAPMessage objects. If the MessageFactory object was initialized with a messaging Profile, it produces SOAPMessage objects that conform to that Profile. For example, a SOAPMessage object created by a MessageFactory object initialized with the ebXML Profile will have the appropriate ebXML headers.

See Also: MessageFactory AttachmentPart

Field Summary
static StringCHARACTER_SET_ENCODING
Specifies the character type encoding for the SOAP Message.
static StringWRITE_XML_DECLARATION
Specifies whether the SOAP Message should contain an XML declaration.
Constructor Summary
SOAPMessage()
Method Summary
abstract voidaddAttachmentPart(AttachmentPart attachmentpart)
Adds the given AttachmentPart object to this SOAPMessage object.
abstract intcountAttachments()
Gets a count of the number of attachments in this message.
abstract AttachmentPartcreateAttachmentPart()
Creates a new empty AttachmentPart object.
AttachmentPartcreateAttachmentPart(DataHandler datahandler)
Creates an AttachmentPart object and populates it using the given DataHandler object.
AttachmentPartcreateAttachmentPart(Object content, String contentType)
Creates an AttachmentPart object and populates it with the specified data of the specified content type.
abstract IteratorgetAttachments()
Retrieves all the AttachmentPart objects that are part of this SOAPMessage object.
abstract IteratorgetAttachments(MimeHeaders headers)
Retrieves all the AttachmentPart objects that have header entries that match the specified headers.
abstract StringgetContentDescription()
Retrieves a description of this SOAPMessage object's content.
abstract MimeHeadersgetMimeHeaders()
Returns all the transport-specific MIME headers for this SOAPMessage object in a transport-independent fashion.
ObjectgetProperty(String property)
Retrieves value of the specified property.
SOAPBodygetSOAPBody()
Gets the SOAP Body contained in this SOAPMessage object.
SOAPHeadergetSOAPHeader()
Gets the SOAP Header contained in this SOAPMessage object.
abstract SOAPPartgetSOAPPart()
Gets the SOAP part of this SOAPMessage object.
abstract voidremoveAllAttachments()
Removes all AttachmentPart objects that have been added to this SOAPMessage object.
abstract voidsaveChanges()
Updates this SOAPMessage object with all the changes that have been made to it.
abstract booleansaveRequired()
Indicates whether this SOAPMessage object has had the method saveChanges called on it.
abstract voidsetContentDescription(String description)
Sets the description of this SOAPMessage object's content with the given description.
voidsetProperty(String property, Object value)
Associates the specified value with the specified property.
abstract voidwriteTo(OutputStream out)
Writes this SOAPMessage object to the given output stream.

Field Detail

CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING

public static final String CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING
Specifies the character type encoding for the SOAP Message.

WRITE_XML_DECLARATION

public static final String WRITE_XML_DECLARATION
Specifies whether the SOAP Message should contain an XML declaration.

Constructor Detail

SOAPMessage

public SOAPMessage()

Method Detail

addAttachmentPart

public abstract void addAttachmentPart(AttachmentPart attachmentpart)
Adds the given AttachmentPart object to this SOAPMessage object. An AttachmentPart object must be created before it can be added to a message.

Parameters: attachmentpart an AttachmentPart object that is to become part of this SOAPMessage object

Throws: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

countAttachments

public abstract int countAttachments()
Gets a count of the number of attachments in this message. This count does not include the SOAP part.

Returns: the number of AttachmentPart objects that are part of this SOAPMessage object

createAttachmentPart

public abstract AttachmentPart createAttachmentPart()
Creates a new empty AttachmentPart object. Note that the method addAttachmentPart must be called with this new AttachmentPart object as the parameter in order for it to become an attachment to this SOAPMessage object.

Returns: a new AttachmentPart object that can be populated and added to this SOAPMessage object

createAttachmentPart

public AttachmentPart createAttachmentPart(DataHandler datahandler)
Creates an AttachmentPart object and populates it using the given DataHandler object.

Parameters: datahandler the javax.activation.DataHandler object that will generate the content for this SOAPMessage object

Returns: a new AttachmentPart object that contains data generated by the given DataHandler object

Throws: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException if there was a problem with the specified DataHandler object

See Also: DataHandler DataHandler javax.activation.DataContentHandler DataContentHandler

createAttachmentPart

public AttachmentPart createAttachmentPart(Object content, String contentType)
Creates an AttachmentPart object and populates it with the specified data of the specified content type.

Parameters: content an Object containing the content for this SOAPMessage object contentType a String object giving the type of content; examples are "text/xml", "text/plain", and "image/jpeg"

Returns: a new AttachmentPart object that contains the given data

Throws: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException if the contentType does not match the type of the content object, or if there was no DataContentHandler object for the given content object

See Also: DataHandler DataHandler javax.activation.DataContentHandler DataContentHandler

getAttachments

public abstract Iterator getAttachments()
Retrieves all the AttachmentPart objects that are part of this SOAPMessage object.

Returns: an iterator over all the attachments in this message

getAttachments

public abstract Iterator getAttachments(MimeHeaders headers)
Retrieves all the AttachmentPart objects that have header entries that match the specified headers. Note that a returned attachment could have headers in addition to those specified.

Parameters: headers a MimeHeaders object containing the MIME headers for which to search

Returns: an iterator over all attachments that have a header that matches one of the given headers

getContentDescription

public abstract String getContentDescription()
Retrieves a description of this SOAPMessage object's content.

Returns: a String describing the content of this message or null if no description has been set

See Also: setContentDescription(java.lang.String)

getMimeHeaders

public abstract MimeHeaders getMimeHeaders()
Returns all the transport-specific MIME headers for this SOAPMessage object in a transport-independent fashion.

Returns: a MimeHeaders object containing the MimeHeader objects

getProperty

public Object getProperty(String property)
Retrieves value of the specified property.

Parameters: property the name of the property to retrieve

Returns: the value of the property or null if no such property exists

Throws: SOAPException if the property name is not recognized

getSOAPBody

public SOAPBody getSOAPBody()
Gets the SOAP Body contained in this SOAPMessage object.

Returns: the SOAPBody object contained by this SOAPMessage object

Throws: SOAPException if the SOAP Body does not exist or cannot be retrieved

getSOAPHeader

public SOAPHeader getSOAPHeader()
Gets the SOAP Header contained in this SOAPMessage object.

Returns: the SOAPHeader object contained by this SOAPMessage object

Throws: SOAPException if the SOAP Header does not exist or cannot be retrieved

getSOAPPart

public abstract SOAPPart getSOAPPart()
Gets the SOAP part of this SOAPMessage object.

If a SOAPMessage object contains one or more attachments, the SOAP Part must be the first MIME body part in the message.

Returns: the SOAPPart object for this SOAPMessage object

removeAllAttachments

public abstract void removeAllAttachments()
Removes all AttachmentPart objects that have been added to this SOAPMessage object.

This method does not touch the SOAP part.

saveChanges

public abstract void saveChanges()
Updates this SOAPMessage object with all the changes that have been made to it. This method is called automatically when a message is sent or written to by the methods ProviderConnection.send, SOAPConnection.call, or SOAPMessage.writeTo. However, if changes are made to a message that was received or to one that has already been sent, the method saveChanges needs to be called explicitly in order to save the changes. The method saveChanges also generates any changes that can be read back (for example, a MessageId in profiles that support a message id). All MIME headers in a message that is created for sending purposes are guaranteed to have valid values only after saveChanges has been called.

In addition, this method marks the point at which the data from all constituent AttachmentPart objects are pulled into the message.

Throws: SOAPException if there was a problem saving changes to this message.

saveRequired

public abstract boolean saveRequired()
Indicates whether this SOAPMessage object has had the method saveChanges called on it.

Returns: true if saveChanges has been called on this message at least once; false otherwise.

setContentDescription

public abstract void setContentDescription(String description)
Sets the description of this SOAPMessage object's content with the given description.

Parameters: description a String describing the content of this message

See Also: getContentDescription()

setProperty

public void setProperty(String property, Object value)
Associates the specified value with the specified property. If there was already a value associated with this property, the old value is replaced.

The valid property names include WRITE_XML_DECLARATION and CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING. All of these standard SAAJ properties are prefixed by "javax.xml.soap". Vendors may also add implementation specific properties. These properties must be prefixed with package names that are unique to the vendor.

Setting the property WRITE_XML_DECLARATION to "true" will cause an XML Declaration to be written out at the start of the SOAP message. The default value of "false" suppresses this declaration.

The property CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING defaults to the value "utf-8" which causes the SOAP message to be encoded using UTF-8. Setting CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING to "utf-16" causes the SOAP message to be encoded using UTF-16.

Some implementations may allow encodings in addition to UTF-8 and UTF-16. Refer to your vendor's documentation for details.

Parameters: property the property with which the specified value is to be associated value the value to be associated with the specified property

Throws: SOAPException if the property name is not recognized

writeTo

public abstract void writeTo(OutputStream out)
Writes this SOAPMessage object to the given output stream. The externalization format is as defined by the SOAP 1.1 with Attachments specification.

If there are no attachments, just an XML stream is written out. For those messages that have attachments, writeTo writes a MIME-encoded byte stream.

Parameters: out the OutputStream object to which this SOAPMessage object will be written

Throws: SOAPException if there was a problem in externalizing this SOAP message IOException if an I/O error occurs

Copyright B) 2005 Apache Web Services Project. All Rights Reserved.