You can associate a SOAP message with one or more attachments in their
native format (for example GIF or JPEG) by using a multipart MIME structure
for transport. There are two core standards that define how you can do this:
- SOAP Messages with Attachments W3C Note. This document
defines specific use of the Multipart/Related MIME media type, and rules for
the use of URI references to refer to entities bundled within the MIME package.
It outlines a technique for a SOAP 1.1 message to be carried within a MIME
multipart/related message in such a way that the SOAP processing rules for
a standard SOAP message are not changed.
- Web Services-Interoperability (WS-I) Attachments
Profile Version 1.0. This profile compliments the WS-I Basic Profile
1.1 to add support for conveying interoperable attachments with SOAP messages.
There are two main parts to this profile:
- It introduces a new XML Schema type, swaref (SOAP
with attachments reference). This is used to define content within the SOAP
body that refers to attachments within the message.
- It defines how a WSDL message part that is bound to a MIME attachment
is encoded into the SOAP message.
The service integration bus supports both of these standards,
subject to the restrictions detailed in Limitations in the support for SOAP with attachments.