Wolf, Chris (IT) wrote: >>From looking at the SOAP spec, it seems that it's the responsibilty > of the transport to indicate the encoding, as these samples show: > > http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-SOAP-20000508/#_Toc478383490 > > Note the "Content-Type:" HTTP header. > > Also note that the SOAP spec explicitly states that SOAP messages MUST > NOT > (their emphasis) contain processing instructions (e.g. the "<?xml...?>" > declaration) > > http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-SOAP-20000508/#_Toc478383492
Technically, <?xml ...?> isn't a processing instruction. It looks like one, but it's actually a different kind of object called the "XML declaration" and it is only allowed to appear at the very top of the document, whereas true processing instructions (<?anything-except-xml ...?>) can appear anywhere. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-prolog-dtd http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-pi However, the parser is allowed to ignore the encoding specified in the XML declaration if it has some external way to know what the encoding is (such as the Content-type header). http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#charencoding But if the request had a content type like application/xml then it would be the XML declaration that determines the encoding used. Ian -- Ian Roberts | Department of Computer Science [EMAIL PROTECTED] | University of Sheffield, UK
