All, The media type is defined in the W3C Last Call Working Draft of "SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism" [1] Below is a full text version for convenience. [2] Please direct comments to xmlp-comments@w3.org. Best regards, [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-mtom/#media_type [2] A The application/soap_xop+xml Media Type A.1 Introduction SOAP version 1.2 ([SOAP Part 1] and [SOAP Part 2]) is a lightweight protocol intended for exchange of structured information between peers in a decentralized, distributed environment. It defines an extensible messaging framework that contains a message construct based on XML technologies that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The XML-binary Optimized Packaging Mechanism [XOP] is an alternate serialization of the XML Infoset, intended to make processing and representation of certain types of content (specifically, that which is base64-encoded) more efficient. Such serializations, when free-standing, are called XOP Packages; the portion of the XOP Package that represents the structure and non-optimized content of the Infoset are called XOP Documents, and are serialized as XML. This appendix defines the media type application/soap_xop+xml which can be used to identify SOAP 1.2 message envelopes that have been serialized as XOP Documents using XML 1.0 ([XML 1.0]). The application/soap_xop+xml media type explicitly identifies the XOP Document portion of a SOAP 1.2 message envelope, serialized as XML 1.0. In other words, it identifies the serialized XML after the extraction of any content into the XOP Package; it does not identify the package itself. XOP Documents not serialized as XML 1.0 or representing message envelopes with a different SOAP namespace version MUST NOT use it. A.2 Registration * MIME media type name: application. * MIME subtype name: soap_xop+xml * Required parameters: none * Optional parameters: o "charset": This parameter has identical semantics to the charset parameter of the application/xml media type as specified in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023]. o "action": This optional parameter can be used to specify the URI that identifies the intent of the message. In SOAP 1.2, it serves a similar purpose as the SOAPAction HTTP header field did in SOAP 1.1. Namely, its value identifies the intent of the message. The value of the action parameter is an absolute URI-reference as defined by RFC 2396 [RFC 2396]. SOAP places no restrictions on the specificity of the URI or that it is resolvable. Although the purpose of the action parameter is to indicate the intent of the SOAP message there is no mechanism for automatically computing the value based on the SOAP envelope. In other words, the value has to be determined out of band. It is recommended that the same value be used to identify sets of message types that are logically connected in some manner, for example part of the same "service". It is strongly RECOMMENDED that the URI be globally unique and stable over time. The presence and content of the action parameter MAY be used by servers such as firewalls to appropriately filter SOAP messages and it may be used by servers to facilitate dispatching of SOAP messages to internal message handlers etc. It SHOULD NOT be used as an insecure form of access authorization. Use of the action parameter is OPTIONAL. SOAP Receivers MAY use it as a hint to optimize processing, but SHOULD NOT require its presence in order to operate. * Encoding considerations: Identical to those of application/xml as described in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023], section 3.2, as applied to the SOAP envelope Infoset. * Security considerations: Because SOAP can carry application defined data whose semantics is independent from that of any MIME wrapper (or context within which the MIME wrapper is used), one should not expect to be able to understand the semantics of the SOAP message based on the semantics of the MIME wrapper alone. Therefore, whenever using the application/soap_xop+xml media type, it is strongly RECOMMENDED that the security implications of the context within which the SOAP message is used is fully understood. The security implications are likely to involve both the specific SOAP binding to an underlying protocol as well as the application-defined semantics of the data carried in the SOAP message (though one must be careful when doing this, as discussed in SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [SOAP Part 1], 7.3.1 Binding to Application-Specific Protocols. Also, see SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [SOAP Part 1], 7. Security Considerations. In addition, as this media type uses the "+xml" convention, it shares the same security considerations as described in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023], section 10. * Interoperability considerations: There are no known interoperability issues. * Published specification: SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [SOAP Part 1], SOAP 1.2 Part 2, [SOAP Part 2], and XOP [XOP]. * Applications which use this media type: No known applications currently use this media type. * Additional information: o File extension: SOAP messages are not required or expected to be stored as files. o Fragment identifiers: Identical to that of application/xml as described in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023], section 5. o Base URI: As specified in RFC 3023 [RFC 3023], section 6. Also see SOAP 1.2 Part 1 [SOAP Part 1], 6. Use of URIs in SOAP. o Macintosh File Type code: TEXT * Person and email address to contact for further information: Mark Nottingham <mnot@pobox.com> * Intended usage: COMMON * Author/Change controller: The SOAP 1.2 specification set is a work product of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Protocol Working Group. The W3C has change control over these specifications. -- Yves Lafon - W3C "Baroula que barouleras, au tiéu toujou t'entourneras."