SOAP and Actors

• If the SOAP actor attribute is not present in a header, then the recipient of the message is considered the final destination. The following list covers the rules a well-behaved SOAP server must follow when receiving a SOAP message:

• Identify the parts of the SOAP message intended for that application. This means checking the header for an actor attribute that is either the URI of the application or the URI http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/actor/next, which means that the application must process the header.


• Verify that all parts of the header intended for the application and associated with a mustUnderstand="true" attribute are supported by the application. If the application cannot process the message, then it must discard the message and return a SOAP fault (see section on SOAP faults on page 137).


• Process the parts of the header intended for the application. If there are elements that include the attribute mustUnderstand="false" or that do not specify the mustUnderstand attribute, then the application may ignore those elements.


• If the application is not the ultimate destination of the message, then it must remove all header elements intended for it before forwarding the message.