SOAP envelope
<env:Envelope>
The SOAP 1.2 document element: an optional Header followed by one required Body.
Envelope is the boundary of every SOAP message. Its namespace URI selects the SOAP version; the prefix itself is only a local alias.
The child order is fixed. Header, when present, comes before Body, and application payloads belong inside Body rather than beside the SOAP containers.
- Format
- SOAP envelope
- Namespace
- SOAP 1.2 envelope
- Parent
- None — this is the document element
- How many
- Exactly one, as the document element.
What our validator does
The XML validator checks that both examples are well-formed. It does not enforce this vocabulary's semantic content model, so the broken example is intentionally reported as valid XML.
We do not catch this one
This document is well-formed XML but violates a SOAP or XML Schema vocabulary rule. XML syntax alone cannot detect that defect; use a SOAP-aware processor or an XSD validator when conformance matters.Broken and fixed
Both documents below are well-formed XML — that is the point of this corpus — and both are run through the validator on every test run. The verdicts here are what it returned, not what we expect it to.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
<env:Body><m:getPrice xmlns:m="urn:example:catalog"><m:sku>42</m:sku></m:getPrice></env:Body>
<env:Header><m:trace xmlns:m="urn:example:meta">abc-123</m:trace></env:Header>
</env:Envelope><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
<env:Header><m:trace xmlns:m="urn:example:meta">abc-123</m:trace></env:Header>
<env:Body><m:getPrice xmlns:m="urn:example:catalog"><m:sku>42</m:sku></m:getPrice></env:Body>
</env:Envelope>Where it reaches
- FormatsSOAP envelopeThe SOAP format page places this element in the complete document model.
- NamespacesSOAP 1.2 envelopeThe exact namespace URI that gives <env:Envelope> its vocabulary meaning.
- ToolsXML validatorCheck XML syntax before handing the message to a SOAP-aware processor.
Related elements
- <env:Header>The optional SOAP container for routing, security, tracing, transactions, and other processing metadata.
- <env:Body>The required SOAP container for an application payload or a single Fault response.
- <env:Fault>SOAP 1.2's structured error payload, with a machine-readable Code and human-readable Reason.
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