What is SOAP composed of?

A SOAP message is an ordinary XML document containing the following elements:

• A required Envelope element that identifies the XML document as a SOAP message

• An optional Header element that contains header information

• A required Body element that contains call and response information

• An optional Fault element that provides information about errors that occurred while processing the message
   

Syntax Rules

• A SOAP message MUST be encoded using XML
• A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Envelope namespace
• A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Encoding namespace

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope"
soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding">

    <soap:Header>
        ...
        ...
    </soap:Header>

    <soap:Body>
        ...
        ...
        <soap:Fault>
            ...
            ...
        </soap:Fault>
    </soap:Body>

</soap:Envelope>