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Using SOAP Headers

This topic is specific to a legacy technology. XML Web services and XML Web service clients should now be created using Windows Communication Foundation.

Communicating with a Web service method using SOAP follows a standard format. Part of this format is the data that is encoded in an XML document. The XML document consists of a root Envelope element, which in turn consists of a required Body element and an optional Header element. The Body element comprises the data specific to the message. The optional Header element can contain additional information not directly related to the particular message. Each child element of the Header element is called a SOAP header.

Although the SOAP headers can contain data related to the message, as the SOAP specification does not strictly define the contents of a SOAP header, they typically contain information processed by infrastructure within a Web server. An example of how a SOAP header can be used is to supply routing information for the SOAP message within the SOAP header.

In This Section

See Also

Concepts

Anatomy of an XML Web Service Lifetime
Building XML Web Service Clients

Other Resources

Customizing SOAP Message Formatting
XML Web Services Using ASP.NET

Build Date: 2011-02-07