BP 1.1 Clarification related to parts attribute of <soapbind:body> element.

Here is what BP 1.1 says which finds mention in even Ivan's notes. Here is what Ivan's notes say.

• In a Document/Literal description where the <soapbind:body> element has a parts attribute
with the value “” (the empty string), the corresponding envelope must have an empty SOAP
<Body> element.
• In a RPC/Literal description where the <soapbind:body> element has a parts attribute with
the value “” (the empty string), the corresponding envelope must have no part acceparts attributessor
elements.

Here are my questions.

Unless I missed something in Ivan's notes and in RMH, it doesn't talk about parts attribute of <soapbind:body> element. What is it used for.

In a Document/Literal description where the <soapbind:body> element has a parts attribute
with the value “” (the empty string), the corresponding envelope must have an empty SOAP
<Body> element

Are we talking abt a SOAP message with an empty <Body> element. What purpose would it serve. I am assuming somehow it would be answered by the first question but still wanted to put my doubt forth.

If someone could post an example of SOAP envelope for both RPC/Literal format with parts attribute = "" that would be really helpful.

Thanks

Kamal,

May be I'm mistaken and would appreciate, if some one corrects me here.

When I looked into the schema http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap for soapbind:body element, below is what I see

<xs:element name="body" type="soap:tBody" />
- <xs:attributeGroup name="tBodyAttributes">
<xs:attribute name="encodingStyle" type="soap:encodingStyle" use="optional" />
<xs:attribute name="use" type="soap:useChoice" use="optional" />
<xs:attribute name="namespace" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional" />
</xs:attributeGroup>
- <xs:complexType name="tBody">
- <xs:complexContent>
- <xs:extension base="wsdl:tExtensibilityElement">
<xs:attribute name="parts" type="xs:NMTOKENS" use="optional" />
<xs:attributeGroup ref="soap:tBodyAttributes" />
</xs:extension>
</xs:complexContent>
</xs:complexType>

parts attribute is of type NMTOKENS which means it should be non zero length of sequence as per definition

The ·value space· of NMTOKENS is the set of finite, non-zero-length sequences of ·NMTOKEN·s. The ·lexical space· of NMTOKENS is the set of space-separated lists of tokens, of which each token is in the ·lexical space· of NMTOKEN. The ·itemType· of NMTOKENS is NMTOKEN.

So I do not understand, why BP1.1 could actually say about parts="", when it is not allowed by spec.

"soap:body" - Binding for SOAP Body seems to explain it well.

parts="nmtokens" - Indicates with part or parts defined in the input or output message (specified through the "wsdl:portType" element) are used to construct this SOAP Body. If not provided, all parts are used.

So, three scenarios exist -

Parts attribute doesn't exist - all input or output messages are used to construct the SOAP Body.
Parts attribute exists and it's "" - SOAP Body would be empty.
Parts attribute exists and it lists messages - SOAP Body would have only these parts.

Regards,
Dan

Agreed,

but NMTOKENS means it should be a non zero length sequence, then how can we use parts="", which means a zero lenght here.

Hi Dan/Kumar,
I'm facing a problem in auto generated wsdl which has parts="" for soap:body while adding it as web reference in visual studio2008. I have created new thread webpage. Could you please clarify my doubts, Many thanks in advance.